“Why isn’t The Bronx a city?” Eugene inquired as we sat around a table in Melanie’s Roti & Grill Restaurant on Castle Hill Avenue.
“It’s a borough,” Gerry explained.
“Yeah, but what’s a borough? Why isn’t it just another city? What is it with these boroughs? I mean, when I think of New York I think of Manhattan. That’s New York. The Bronx? Brooklyn? Boroughs? What’s that all about?”’
Zio, could only hear fragments of Eugene’s proclamations, but enough to test his patience. “Would you shut up already about the boroughs!” he yelled, his face contorted in rage.
Not long before I chose Melanie’s Roti & Grill Restaurant, CNN aired a program hosted by food and travel media celebrity, Anthony Bourdain called “Parts Unknown,” where the unknown part in this episode, at least to Bourdain, was the Bronx. After twelve years of foraging restaurants in New York, including all the boroughs that so perplex Eugene there were no more unknown parts in the city for our Chow City group. We’d been to almost all of them—and the Bronx, because it had long been neglected in the city’s food sphere has always been a particular focus for our group.
In the Bronx, our group uncovered ethnic joints where we’ve had, among other things, pizza, African, Vietnamese, Thai, Bangladeshi, Pakistani, Mexican, Barbecue, and Caribbean. The variety of food choices in the Bronx is almost equal to what can be found the city’s food epicenter, another one of those boroughs lamented by Eugene: Queens.
It was happy hour at Melanie’s and I got happy with a Heineken.
“They have Ron Zacapa 23 here,” Mike from Yonkers announced to all but especially to Gerry referring to the aged rum from Guatemala .
“I might have one or two of those,” Gerry said.
At Melanie’s the happy hour lasted from 4pm until 8. We were comfortably under the deadline.
“We are in a Guyanese place. Why not order an El Dorado 21 year old instead,” I suggested.
“Maybe I’ll have one of those too,” Gerry said with a sly smile.
Old rum for an old man
That it was happy hour was a bonus, but we were at Melanie’s for the food.
It had been several years since we dined on Guyanese food and this one, located in the heart of a Latin neighborhood in the Bronx, seemed an anomaly until I noticed another “roti” restaurant a block from Melanie’s. Apparently there was a West Indian/Guyanese enclave within the enclave. Why should I be surprised? This was the Bronx after all.
With Mike from Yonkers’ insistence, and not that we protested, we started with an order of fried shark for the table along with a plate of channa, spiced and salted chick peas. The shark, also salty and fried into chunks went well with my Heineken.
Channa
The Guyanese like to offer westernized variations of Chinese food in their restaurants; lo mein, chow mein and fried rice were available at Melanie’s. Though I would never order chow mein in a Chinese restaurant, I couldn’t resist trying it at Melanie’s and had what was called the “mix.”
“You want everything in it?” Our waitress and bartender inquired.
“I want it all,” I said without hesitation.
Guyanese chow mein with the works
Though Guyana was a long way from Jamaica, the birthplace of jerk chicken, like all of the Caribbean, jerk has become a staple in that region and both Eugene and Zio ordered it at Melanie’s while Gerry, disappointed that there was no more goat available that day to have with his curry, substituted duck in its place. Mike from Yonkers also was intrigued by the duck, among other things, and chose the bunjal duck with Indian dhal and basmati rice.
“Oh and I can I have one of those roti things,” Eugene said, not knowing that roti was an Indian soft, flat bread wrapped into a narrow roll even though we knew he had had it before at one or two of our food choices throughout the years.
The portions were enormous; the mix in my chow mein included shrimp, beef, roast pork, duck, jerk chicken and vegetables. The noodles, as I expected were soggy but the vegetables crisp enough to compensate. The only real disappointment was the lack of spice from the jerk chicken, but the accompanying hot sauce more than made up for the lack of heat.
Duck curry
While we rapidly consumed our platters, Mike from Yonkers deliberately dipped his duck in the dhal, scooping a small portion of rice with it, and then wrapping it into a portion of roti; the tedious process making us wait until he finally finished before asking for our check. Eugene glared at him.
“Okay, I’m done,” Mike from Yonkers said, throwing up his hands.
On our way out and walking down Castle Hill Avenue with Zio, we passed a familiar restaurant called Sabrosura. It was familiar because a couple of years earlier we experienced the splendors of that Dominican/Chinese place and chronicled that experience in these pages( The Place Where They Don’t Count the Shrimp). And like Sabrusora and so many others, Melanie’s was just another food find in Parts Unknown.
Melanie’s Roti & Grill Restaurant
1248 Castle Hill Avenue
The Bronx
Fried Neck Bones...and some home fries 
I always thought Bourdain’s parts unknown would be about offal. Since he’s trying to scoop your hood we should send him to olive garden. It might finish what the booze and cigarettes……
AB has finally come to the Bronx party. Better late than never.
To the point, the fare sounds nice and chewy. Scrumpsch-us.