Bang Bang

Friday night, I headed north to the Jamaican-Canadian Association center near Weston and Finch for "dinner and a movie". A local, "crowd-sourced" film was being shown, but before that: a buffet dinner. There was also to be some dancing afterwards and live performers. Things were a bit late so we didn't eat until 9 pm.

It was Jamaican food with two non-Caribbean dishes. Since they were lasagna and pasta, the combination reminded me of Kensington Market's Jamaican/Italian spot Rasta Pasta. But the carbs couldn't compare with the other choices. The fish was too tough after sitting too long in the tray. I liked the fried chicken but it was a tad greasy. However, both the curry goat and jerk chicken were good, with spices not toned down. Add some rice and beans and it was a filling meal.

The movie was hit and miss. The big technical failure was the lack of professional boom mics during the shoot. It made the audio too low and noisy. Combined with the strong Jamaican accents, and  I was lost for the most part. I'm pretty sure there was a lot of swearing though, as I heard some phrases made recently famous by our crack-head mayor Rob Ford. Also with the late hours, the fancy-dressed crowd was more in the mood for dancing and taking advantage of the massive sound system (which would shame many downtown venues) instead of sitting down. So it made for a fidgety audience.

Because of a long day, I headed home after intermission so I didn't know if they got to the dancing. But the music played before dinner was uniformly catchy and tropical.