This Mouth is On Fire

Woo, lawdy — it's not just my mouth, but my tongue and of all things, my ears burn after eating Kelly's. Trust me on this, y'all. That burn that makes you feel like Dracarys just breathed fire straight into your face is so worth the food.

Kelly's Authentic Jamaican Foods, also affectionately called Kelly's Jerk or simply Kelly's, is a true Five Points Athens gem. The last time I ate here was approximately 2010, and at the time I rarely ate anything spicier than mild salsa at Mexican restaurants. I couldn't tell you what I ate, but I distinctly remember sitting in the restaurant area with my coworkers, my eyes watering from the peppery, sweet and hot meat and sides. I couldn't stop eating even though my 21-year-old self could barely handle the heat. Everything was just so flavorful and delicious.

Eight years later, and with a slightly better food vocabulary than "flavorful and delicious," I'm happy to report that Kelly's is still serving up intensely seasoned dry-rubbed meats and complementary sides. Over the intervening time period, I was introduced to and learned to appreciate a variety of different styles of spicy flavors (Sriracha, spicy Latinx and Hispanic foods, sweet-spicy Thai, savory and sweet Indian ...), so my palate welcomed jerk with open tastebuds.

Two jerk pork plates from Kelly's Authentic Jamaican
Foods in Athens, Georgia. Side selections were spicy
squash, rice & beans, mac 'n' cheese and green beans. 

My boyfriend and I ordered a couple of to-go jerk pork plates, which each come with two sides. Though I did not get a chance to ask Mr. Kelly about his recipe secrets, jerk seasoning is typically a spice blend of herbs and ingredients like cumin, allspice, cinnamon (the top three I detect the most prominently in the pork and spicy squash), hot peppers, black pepper and salt. Not that I am anywhere near expert at Jamaican foods, but I feel like jerk seasoning is one of those things that gets guarded as a restaurant or family secret not unlike the recipe for Coca-Cola syrup: there will often be imitators, but there will never be duplicators. Everyone's seasoning has the same basic ingredients, then you swap a few out to suit your tastebuds, then you play with proportions to get the sweet vs. spicy vs. savory ratio that's ideal for your dishes.

When I walked into Kelly's this weekend, I will be completely honest in that I must've looked like a complete idiot — I stared at the beer and soda cooler behind the order counter looking for a menu board until the sweet woman working the register took pity on me and pointed to my left, where a white board spelled out the day's options. I already had my heart set on the jerk pork my boyfriend mentioned (if you've followed Meatetarian Eats for any amount of time, you know I have a special place in my heart for pork dishes). For our four sides, two per plate, I was feeling the spicy squash, mac 'n' cheese, green beans and rice and beans.

Each of these was served in generous portion in Styrofoam to-go containers, with a little extra pork gravy poured over the rice. And you can't leave Kelly's without cornbread. Few know this, but doing so is committing the eighth deadly sin. That's because Kelly's cornbread is more like a sweet honey cake with the consistency of cornbread than it is a Southern-style dry and buttery cornbread. I highly advise you to get a big square of it, put it on your plate and let it sop up the grease and gravy from your meat.

Holy smokes. I don't know if you've ever eaten spicy honey before, but that is what this tastes like. It's tantalizingly sweet and then slowly at first, but then faster, the heat comes on and you're left trying to figure out what peppers got put in your cake. Or well, maybe you're not, but I am.

As for the sides, the spicy squash had more of a sweet heat to it, and the rice and beans had more prominent peppery notes (granted, that may have been from the additional gravy poured over it). The mac 'n' cheese was gooey and savory, and tasted as though perhaps some cumin was added to it. I don't know how y'all feel about mac 'n' cheese, but my absolute pet peeve on this side is when it's served up as noodles doused in cheese so melted that it's more like eating cheesy noodle soup. This had more consistency of a baked mac, and I greatly appreciated that! Another weird Meatetarian quirk is how I am about green beans. I abhor the fancy long beans, wax beans, Italian green beans, etc. Basically, I like my green beans out of a can. I don't think Kelly's green beans came from a can (if they did, I am totes OK with it), but they had the perfect size, moistness and brininess as canned green beans. The flavor was subdued compared to the other sides, but with so much spice on your plate, I think it was a good idea to get something a little more mellow to round the meal out.

I don't think it's entirely far-fetched to wonder if there's some addictive additive inside Kelly's jerk seasoning. Considering how on fire my entire body is at this point (sunburned arm included), it's the only logical explanation for me wanting to drive back over for more.