| Restaurant Review: 2mayto 2mato | | | |
A Taste of Another Nation
New restaurant 2mayto 2mato has sauces and chutneys straight from Trinidad By Kaitlin Barrer The small front room of 2mayto 2mato is simply done, furnished with three tall wooden tables and two display cabinets that look a bit barren. The evidence of breezy Caribbean islands and exotic cuisine is hidden in the free samples. Angela Ramdass, a native of Trinidad and Tobago, stands discreetly behind the cash register in her somewhat dull digs. She is more than aware of the state of her surroundings; she’s awaiting approval from the Food and Drug Administration to stock the shelves with her carefully crafted sauces. Everything is stored in a refrigerator, which for now is fine. “I’m not in the mood to argue,” she says. Despite the lack of spice in the decoration of her tiny shop and restaurant, there is still plenty of that in the food Ramdass serves up. 2mayto 2mato offers Trinidadian sandwiches, meals, sides and sauces, making it a little bite of the Caribbean in the middle of the Front Range. Ramdass buys most of the ingredients locally, though many of her dishes are accented by Trinidadian imports. Each week, for instance, the restaurant ships 100 pumpkins from the West Indies. Ramdass uses them for sautéed pumpkin, a signature side dish that contains parsley, garlic, onion and sugar to give it the taste of savory squash. Ramdass says the cost and effort to get Trinidadian pumpkins, which are always in season, is well worth it. She learned such recipes from her mother. Ramdass was a teenager at the time, living in Trinidad with seven brothers and sisters. At 19, she immigrated to New York City. “I always loved traveling,” she says, recounting her fast-paced youth. She arrived in New York with no plan, but after just six months of working as a waitress, she had saved enough money to furnish an apartment. An apartment she rarely spent time in. “The only days we didn’t go dancing were Mondays and Tuesdays,” she says. Ramdass slowed down in her late 30, got a degree in accounting, did bookkeeping for food companies, and met her husband. The couple moved to Fort Collins eight years ago, during which time Ramdass has done accounting for small businesses in Loveland. Cooking was merely a hobby—a fun skill to impress friends while entertaining. Ramdass started selling goods at local farmers’ markets a year ago. The reaction, she says, was explosive. “Every week we would double our orders,” she says. “Every week we would sell out.” Her business grew again last year, when she opened the restaurant in Fort Collins. 2mayto 2mato’s specialties are Trinidadian choka and chutney. The tangy choka sauce is often eaten as a salsa or pasta sauce. For the sweet chutney, Ramdass imports ripened tamarind from Trinidad, which she stores with apples to keep it moist in the dry Colorado air. As for the best way to enjoy chutney, Ramdass says she prefers mixing it with cream cheese and spreading it onto bagels. It is dangerously addictive, she says. “One you decide to eat it with chips, rebuttal is … ” Ramdass trails off, shaking her head. Inconceivable? She prepares both choka and chutney to varying degrees of spiciness by using different amounts of congo peppers, more widely known as scotch bonnets—“the hottest peppers in the world.” Ramdass’ sauces contain no preservatives and very few ingredients. Her Trini Style Hot Sauce, for example, has just peppers, garlic, salt and vinegar. Its warning—“HOT!” bookmarked by two cross and skull bones—is no understatement. Ramdass says Fort Collins, with its laid-back nature and friendly faces, inspired her to cook more and to open her restaurant. In New York City, food retail was too competitive for her to have ever considered opening a restaurant. “I’ve met such wonderful people here,” she says. The evolution of her cooking was inspired by those who hanker for the flavors that are so foreign to their pallet, the flavors of her native island. “They’re craving for something different,” she says.
2mayto 2mato
2601 S. Lemay, No. 3 282-6944. |