promo – well read robin

I follow a blog called The Physician’s Palette. It’s written by a art minor turned medical student and every post features an artist’s interpretation of some aspect of the medical field. I found it really inspiring that someone who’s passion was art could transduce that passion into a field so strongly scientific. Not that medicine (especially the clinical and surgical aspects of it) isn’t artistic, but there’s so little room for creativity.

Taking that blog as an example, I set out to find a way to translate my passion for books and literature into medicine. It started with a book list: stories about doctors and stories written by doctors. I was already hooked on Robin Cook (his medical mysteries, not his series – blech) and I found Cromwell’s Kay Scarpetta moderately interesting, but I’d never really paid particular attention to medical novels.

And then I discovered medical blogs. They were perfect. I’m following two blogs by doctors, one by a fellow medical student and a weekly medical comic that’s drawn by a radiologist. I find them clever, insightful and very slice-of-life-y. I love taking sneak peeks into how other people live; I get great perspective from it. I like how reading about the medical field in other countries broadens my horizons, reminds me that I’m not the first person to survive medical school, and that it’s okay to have passions that lie elsewhere. It’s a comfort to know that not everyone has it all figured out at this stage, and it makes me feel connected.

So, today I’m pimping:

A Cartoon Guide to Becoming a Doctor
Domestic Diva, M.D.
Doctor Gargamel
&
Poor M.D.
–
Are there any subject specific blogs that inspire you?

In what is hopefully only the start of a series of ‘Why Montego Bay is Awesome’, I’ll be reviewing the restaurant on 8 Barnett St.: The Soup Kitchen.

The Soup Kitchen might daylight as a simple hardware store, but between the hours of noon and 5pm every Tuesday to Thursday (and noon to 8pm on Fridays), this unassuming restaurant is dishing up delicacies like Spaghetti & Chicken Cacciatore and Chicken Alfredo (affectionately dubbed Chicken Jamfredo) with penne pasta.

TL;DR reasonable prices, continental variety and good-sized servings = one great restaurant

Barely more than a year old, The Soup Kitchen already has a dedicated cache of patrons with companies and individuals ordering lunch on a daily basis. Did I mention they deliver? The restaurant also gets more than its fair share of walk-ins, catering to a crowd that is hungry for more than the tired fare of foods deep fried in grease and fat. It really is a higher culinary experience.

With a menu as varied as its clientèle, The Soup Kitchen serves its trademark Bar-B-Fried Chicken alongside cultural favourites like curried goat, escoveitched fish and brown stewed chicken. All meals served with choice of white rice or rice and peas. The Soup Kitchen offers a full dining complement with appetizers like mannish water and desserts like bread-and-butter pudding (and if you’ve never had it, trust me, you’re missing out). Even the beverage options are enticing – who can resist natural juice flavours like otaheite apple, cucumber and an expertly blended cucumber-fruit-punch mix?

So is it gauche to mention prices? I’m not sure what the social etiquette is for restaurant reviews. But price shouldn’t count when it comes to good food, right? Wrong. At least, I care a lot about prices when I’m being advertised to.

Soup Kitchen prices generally range from $350 to $700 JMD (with the more expensive stuff, like shrimp, being offered less often). They’ve also begun to offer a smaller lunch deal for $250. The regular sized lunch is pretty impressive too (I can’t finish it at one sitting, but then again I eat like a bird).

If you are ever in Montego Bay and if there are any Montegonians reading my blog, you don’t have to despair about finding proper food. The Soup Kitchen’s got you covered. :)

Menu

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