Salted cod. Some call it a humble staple, but I’d say it’s a fantastically tasty treat. What I can’t understand is why it hasn’t caught on in America. It’s portable, cheap and practically never goes bad. Everyone else in the world has figured out how awesome it is. The Europeans love it. West Indians dig it. And a whole lot of Catholics have incorporated the fish into their treasured Easter recipes. Lucky for me, I live in New York–the ultimate city for finding hard-to-find foods.

Stewed goat and potatoes

On a recent dreary, rainy day (in a stream of never-ending rainy days) I got a hankering for salted cod, so I decided to check out a place my friend had recommended. Fritz International Jamaican Restaurant in Bed-Stuy doesn’t look like much from outside. Well, it doesn’t look like much from inside either, but my stomach didn’t seem to care.

Codfish with dumpling, white yam, plantain and ginger beers

When I first walked in the narrow restaurant, all I could think was, “Damn. It’s hot in here.” But my eyes were quickly drawn to the enormous hot bar on my right with vat after vat of colorful dishes and I soon forgot all about being overheated. The menu won’t do much to help you choose what to order, but if you ask friendly manager Gerron Johnson, he’ll explain what a fry bake is and point you toward or away from the many vegetarian selections (whichever you prefer).

I settled on a breakfast dish—a steamy scoop of codfish, sautéed with green peppers, onion, tomato and heaped over boiled, whole wheat dumplings and tender white yam and plantain. Sage went for the goat roti and we grabbed some ginger beers to wash it all down.

I honestly can’t say which was better, though we didn’t waste a bite of either one. The codfish packed a flavorful punch, which complemented the mild flavor of the dumplings and plantain. Gerron had warned me that the dumplings were filling, but wow! He only gave me one and I could barely finish it. It was a solid mass of ground grain, totally unlike the fluffy dumplings my dad used to make. I can see how this dish came to be a breakfast food. One dumpling and you’re set for hours of manual labor.

Sage’s goat roti was equally tasty, but altogether different. It came served as a neatly packaged roll, which we soon destroyed by fishing the bones out of the tender chunks of meat and tearing the soft roti to dunk into the stew of meaty juices and potatoes. If I hadn’t held the subway pole on the way there, it would have been finger lickin’ good.

Vegetarian curry--could've fooled me!

Of the two ginger beers we tried, the Jamaican Ginger Beer handily won our taste test. It had a sufficiently gingery kick, a sweet aftertaste and good bubbles. The Vita Malt Ginger, however, was way too intense. I enjoyed its molassey flavor for about two sips, but the syrupy sweetness wasn’t refreshing at all and the ginger was drowned out by all the other ingredients. I didn’t finish the bottle, which for someone as thirsty as me…well, let’s just say that doesn’t happen very often.

One downside of the tiny restaurant is that there’s only room for two tiny tables, but if the weather’s nice grab your food to go. (If not, check out the other–much larger–location at Clarkson and Albany in Crown Heights.) Fritz’s selection is huge, with everything from collard greens to jerk chicken to oxtails. Besides the traditional West Indian fare there’s also a juice bar and several vegetarian options. The vegetarian curry with tofu totally fooled me (it looks a like a meat lover’s dream). And if I hadn’t been so full, I would have tried a slice of moist sweet potato pudding.

The restaurant has no Web site, but it’s at 1501 Fulton Street, just across from the Kingston-Throop subway stop. The trip is well worthwhile, even on a muggy, rainy day.