Tong

Beloved Bengali street cart Tong finally opened their first brick and mortar shop in Jamaica, so you no longer have to work through their delightful wreaths of sweet and sour fuchka standing on the street with a Tide Stick, hoping for the best. The new location adorably pays homage to their street food roots with a counter shaped like a cart and murals of vendors dishing out fuchka on the walls. 

Truthfully, we don’t mind eating street food as intended (on the street), but a permanent location also means an expanded menu. They’ve added non-veg and veg luchi plates to their roster, with freshly fried bread, sweet cucumber yogurt, well-seasoned beef patties, and some of the best dal tadka we’ve had. The fuchka, topped with a generous amount of fresh coconut and egg yolk, is as good as ever, and you can now get it on fire. No, literally. Each piece arrives with a small, social-media friendly flame inside—a relatively recent trend that started in India. You each fuchka without blowing out the flame, letting the pani extinguish it in your mouth. We haven’t had this version yet, but we’re told everyone’s tongues have survived thus far. 

It’s great to see one of our favorite food carts (and restaurants) in the city expand, and we’re looking forward to trying whatever other classic, complex street foods they’ll add to the menu with a real kitchen on site. Another benefit to the brick and mortar: There’s a sink in the corner of the dining room to rinse all that marsala off your hands.