Island Delicacies brings Youtuber’s Caribbean cooking to Dickinson

Jamaican meals is well-known for its heated flavors. Anybody who’s tried Jamaican Jerk Spice can vouch for this — the mix of substances used is normally a mix of candy allspices, thyme, and scorching chiles, to call just a few.

Whereas the concept of Jerk itself is well-known, there aren’t too many eating places throughout the nation focusing on Jamaican meals, particularly not out in North Dakota. Dickinson, nonetheless, now has its personal piece of the islands with Island Delicacies — an independently-owned restaurant specializing in Caribbean delights.

The restaurant is one other flip within the cooking profession of Island Delicacies’s proprietor and head chef Lamise Oyugi, whose journey with meals started when she was younger and has continued all all through her life.

“I began cooking after I was ten years outdated,” mentioned Oyugi. “It’s all the time been in me. With most individuals from the Caribbean, you don’t have any alternative however to study to prepare dinner typically. I moved to Fargo after I was ten with Hatian dad and mom, so that they put in it in me, I assume. While you’re youthful, you complain when your dad and mom make you do issues. However now, as an grownup, I recognize it.”

Oyugi initially began sharing her cooking with the world through two Youtube channels — one in English and one in Creole — to show viewers how you can make nutritious and scrumptious meals, particularly dishes originating from Africa and the Caribbean islands. This led to her recipes gaining a worldwide viewers, with loads of individuals studying extra about dishes from around the globe whereas studying to make filling and fiery meals.

Whereas her channels had been profitable on their very own (along with her English channel alone boasting over 100,000 subscribers, and her hottest video being seen over 800,000 instances), her viewers not solely aimed to prepare dinner their very own variations of her dishes however to style the originals as effectively. There was such a clamor for Oyugi’s cooking that she ultimately took the subsequent logical step — opening a restaurant of her personal in North Dakota.

Island Delicacies formally opened for enterprise on February 9, and since then, has served up Caribbean cooking to the individuals of Dickinson. The restaurant makes a speciality of the identical dishes that made Oyugi well-known to start with — particularly, home made Haitian and Jamaican dishes starting from the extra generally recognized (Jerk Rooster, Haitian rice, and plantains) to conventional fares uncommon in our rural state, like curried goat and oxtail stew. Listed below are just a few highlights from the menu:

In fact, working a Youtube cooking channel and an precise restaurant are two various things. Based on Oyugi, although, she’s been in a position to maintain the transition slightly effectively.

“There have been challenges, however for probably the most half, it’s been simple to take care of our each day challenges as a result of we’re a small restaurant. Cooking is cooking, but it surely’s a bit of completely different now. Whereas I used to be used to doing cooking movies on the channel, right here, it’s a lot larger portions of meals. It’s a problem, however nothing I can’t deal with.”

Not solely has Oyugi been proud of the outcomes of her new restaurant, however her clients additionally appear to be, too — not less than, if the optimistic responses are any indication.

“I’m completely having fun with it, and the shoppers are too,” Oyugi recollects. “I haven’t met one single one who walked by that door who hadn’t mentioned that the meals was past wonderful. It’s been nothing however optimistic opinions, each in-store, and from Doordash.”

“There’s lots of eating places right here, however we’re completely different,” says Oyugi. “We make every little thing from scratch. We convey a unique taste from what the native individuals listed here are used to, so it’s a kind of eating places the place you must strive it to know simply how scrumptious it’s.”

Island Delicacies is open from Tuesday by Saturday for each lunch (11 a.m. – 2 p.m.) and dinner hours (4-8 p.m.). For extra info on the menu, hours, and extra, go to Island Delicacies’s Fb Web page or name 701-483-9918.