Local residents who've frequented the local mall lately have likely noticed some delicious food offerings right in the parking lot.
Kurtis Monlouis can usually be found in the northwest corner of the Georgetown Market Place lot with his two food trucks, Louis Kitchen (LK) and Cheesecake in tha 6ix (CCIT6).
CCIT6 puts a new twist on a beloved guilty pleasure of many, the cheesecake. They sell “cheescake on a stick,” Monlouis said. The creations from the food truck can get truly decadent, with sweet decorations ranging from chocolate swirls to even a Ferrero Rocher.
But the more visible of the two trucks is LK. The menu is rich with Caribbean food or other creations with a Caribbean twist - jerk chicken, curried chicken, oxtail and many more. Each can come with a side of white rice, rice and peas or coleslaw. Fries, poutine and chicken wings get the Caribbean treatment too. A barbecue is situated next to his trucks, where Monlouis works his magic.
He said his jerk chicken sells out the fastest, usually running out of supply by the middle of the week.
While Monlouis said the spices have been toned down, those who feel like a challenge can ask for some hotter stuff. Five different sauces are available – mild, hot, honey garlic, BBQ and jerk. To cap it all of, customers can pick either a chicken or beef soup.
Monlouis said he didn't formally go to school to learn how to cook, but he had arguably the best education in cuisine a person can ask for, right in his family's kitchen.
“I learned from my mom,” he said, noting his favourite dish that she made was oxtail. “She also still helps me with the prepping and stuff every morning.”
He said it's “hard to find a Jamaican man who can’t cook” because it's traditional for the whole family to learn.
“I've been learning how to cook since I was a young man,” Monlouis added.
His father is from St. Lucia and his mother is from Jamaica, but he spent much of his childhood in Jamaica. He moved to Canada in 1996.
While he may have been learning to cook since he was a child, “it was actually two years ago I started taking it seriously.” Last June, he moved his trucks to their current location based on a friend's recommendation who knew the area.
He says the reception has been great. The best endorsement he has received was from an older Jamaican man whose reaction, he said, “melted my heart.”
“He left, and he came back and he’s like, ‘Hey man, this is best jerk chicken I have had in 16 years.”