Caribbean markets

Rosemarie and Naraine Moonasar from Guyana own the Caribbean Market at 7505 New Hampshire Ave, Langley Park, 301 439 5288, filled with fruit and vegetables like goldenapple, breadfruit, callaloo, dasheen, plaintains and yams, the spices for jerked chicken, numerous hot sauces, Jamaican burnt sugar, fresh meat, frozen stuffed Grenada crab, and Jamaican and Guyanan patties.

A Saturday morning trip to Red Apple Market, 7645 New Hampshire Ave, Langley Park, 301 434 1810, is fun. An outlet for Amish farm produce, sold by the Amish themselves, it is also the largest West Indian market. Freshly flown in supplies of callaloo, breadfruit, different yams, cho-cho, calabaza and herbs jostle for space with fresh and pickled pigs' tails and feet, cow's cod and feet, salted, pickled and dried fish. Here's where to find Inca Cola and other unusual sodas, and spicy ginger beer.

A few doors down from Marchone's, 11224 Triangle Lane, Wheaton, is a little West Indian market selling salted cod, goat, oxtail, tripe, cow's foot, fufu flour and Caribbean spices and beers. Triangle Lane is a good spot for a variety of different ethnic markets.

Tropical Desserts, 82 Q St SW, 202 488 4647 is where you can find West Indian Black Cake, among other dessers. You'll need to order it at least two days in advance.

The Negril Bakery, 965 Thayer Ave, Silver Spring, 301 585 3000 is a small Jamaican take-out with a few tables that acts as a good introduction to Jamaican food. From jerked chicken and goat to spicy Jamaican patties and rich fruit cake, almost all the island's specialties are there.

Nyla Y. Morrison wants eatWashington readers to know she is a Caribbean cook with her own book and a website full of information about Caribbean cultural eating habits. If you log onto http://www.minnacookscaribbean.com you can download three of her recipes. And order her book online…

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