Jamaican Beef Patty Alert - Tropicana Grill

In my younger and more dissolute days, I lived in Brooklyn around the corner from the finest hangover cure known to man. (Just another example of the mysterious ways in which the good Lord looks after us.) On Flatbush Avenue near Grand Army Plaza, there's a tiny bakery called Christie's. Christie's makes and sells The Best Jamaican Beef Patty in New York - a spicy, greasy, flaky bit of goodness tucked inside a buttery lump of coco bread.

Christie's is a bit of a hike if you have the misfortune to be hung over in Houston in, say, July. But there is an acceptable local substitute: the Tropicana Grill at 6521 Bissonnet (near Hillcroft). Homebaked beef and chicken patties are available to go ($1.50 per), and the fresh-baked coco bread makes an excellent companion. Neither the patty nor the bread compares with Christie's, but both are very good. And the folks who run it are very friendly. It's worth a trip just to hear the Jamaican owner valiantly trying to communicate with the Hispanic kitchen help.