The jerk chicken was every bit as hot as promised.
It had the kind of spicy heat that tickles a cough from the back of your throat, unless tempered with the likes of callaloo, or with rice and peas. The latter was splashed with a tangy-sweet sauce generally reserved for the stew chicken (like the jerk, available as a $6.50 lunch). The callaloo, shown in closeup below, blended okra and spinach, as it does at many of the city's Caribbean restaurants; the proportion and consistency vary from venue to venue. Once at Union Square I've seen another leafy vegetable under that name, and perhaps, without noticing, I've passed it by in Richmond Hill, too.
From a later visit: baked chicken (lunch special, now $7.50). The crisp-skinned, nicely cooked bird was accompanied by rice and peas plus a broad scoop of supple mac and cheese ($1 supplement).
Freda's
993 Columbus Ave. (108th-109th Sts.)
646-438-9832
