Veronica's Kitchen

In the urban culinary wasteland we call the Financial District, there are few options for an affordable, tasty, non-cliche, non-chain restaurant lunch. What is a corporate peon to do at mid-day? You could head to Chipotle or Europa Cafe, get some variation of an overpriced soup/salad/sandwich, eat it and be utterly dissatisfied with life. Or you could head over to Veronica's.

In a rickety stainless steel contraption that is almost hidden behind a decorative waterfall/fountain thingamajig on Front St., Veronica and her sons dish out an impressive number of soul food and Jamaican specialties. If you're not sure which cart is Veronica's, just look for the line of customers 10+ people deep, rain or shine. (Yes, I did once stand in line, in a downpour, to get my fix.)

Stewed oxtail with rice and peas and green beans: The oxtail is undoubtedly one of the best dishes at Veronica's. Stewed to a meaty tenderness in a rich, faintly sweet sauce, it is the ideal companion for the rice and peas, which are moist and wonderfully flavorful, especially when steeped in the oxtail sauce. The green beans are rather mushy, but in that so-overcooked-it's-kinda-good way. They elicited memories of my grade school cafeteria.

Jerk chicken with rice and peas and stewed cabbage: This is not a dish for the faint of heart. The chicken is encrusted with chili peppers, including Scotch bonnets (one of the hottest peppers in the world), which give jerk chicken its signature smoky and slightly numbing heat. Halfway through this lunch, I closed the door to my office so that I could gasp and emit groans of pain without alarming passerby. In vain, I tried to temper the five-alarm blaze in my mouth with rice. Unfortunately for me, the spicy juices from the chicken had seeped into the rice as well, thus prolonging my suffering. The esophageal damage that I will surely have in a few years will be directly attributable to this chicken. The stewed cabbage proved to be my only relief. It had been cooked down to a comforting softness, and the sulfuric sweetness of the cabbage was evident. The chicken could have been a tiny bit moister, but this is still one of the better selections from Veronica's cart - it just hurts so good.

Curried goat with rice and peas and stewed cabbage: This ranks with the oxtail as one of the top dishes from Veronica's. The meat was fall-off-the-bone tender, with no overwhelming gaminess. My only complaint is that the potatoes in the curry were a bit watery.

BBQ Boneless beef rib with macaroni and cheese and stewed cabbage: This was the one big miss from Veronica's cart. (Sadly, this was also the lunch I stood in the rain for). The beef rib was disappointingly dry. I was even forced to leave one sizeable piece of it uneaten, as it had been cooked to the consistency of beef jerky. The macaroni and cheese was no better. The macaroni was mushy, with no discernible cheese flavor or creaminess. The impenetrable, overly-caramelized cheese crust only made matters worse.

Curried chicken with rice and peas and collard greens: This was another winner. The chicken was so tender that when I speared it with a fork and attempted to move it to another part of the container, the meat fell apart in transport. The curry flavor could have been a bit stronger, but it was an overall good dish.

Veronica's may not be the best soul food in New York, but it offers some standout dishes that are done extremely well. It is also a good value - a small container of food (like those pictured above) is anywhere from $5-7 and a large container is $9-10.

Veronica's Kitchen

Front St. (between Wall St. and Maiden Lane)

New York, NY 10005

Hours: Monday-Friday, 11:30am-2pm. Arrive early and expect a wait. Popular items begin to run out around 1:30pm.

Best dishes: Rice and peas, oxtail, curried goat, stewed cabbage, collard greens, jerk chicken, curried chicken.