First, let's dispense with the obvious: Eating meat in unidentifiable chunks takes a little getting used to. Sinking teeth into flesh is intrinsically macabre, but gnawing away at flesh that you can't identify (especially when it's attached to hacked-off bones) is doubly discomfiting. So it was with some trepidation that I walked into the Coco Tree Cafe, a brightly painted, improbable little hole in the wall in Belltown. Considering its inauspicious location (tucked into a narrow storefront next to Shorty's), Coco Tree's Jamaican cuisine is inarguably authentic--whatever that means in this world of cable TV, pan-Asian restaurants, and hard-rock/reggae/ hiphop mashups. (Which is exactly the kind of music they were blaring from a gigantic, club-sized speaker above our table during a recent visit.) On the afternoon I stopped by, the cook was disappointingly missing in action, so only three dishes--stew chicken, curry chicken, and curry goat--were available, plus a motley of patties: crisp little stuffed pies that are the Jamaican equivalent of empanadas.

No matter: The meat, hacked up, pan-fried, and then gently braised for hours in a stew of spices that is simultaneously foreign and as familiar as comfort food, was every bit as addictive as the chili dogs available next door. And the rice-and-peas and braised cabbage that accompanied each dish were like the tropical equivalent of mashed potatoes and corn on the cob.

The unprepossessing little patties were surprising packets of flavor that seemed almost weightless for all their heft. One, wrapped in a sunshine-colored dough, was overstuffed with a surprisingly fiery potato-chicken curry; another, so flat it almost looked like an accident, contained a delicate layer of a beef-and-bean mixture that reminded me a little of refried beans.

While other restaurants are brimming with customers all up and down Second Avenue, this tiny ethnic refuge is nearly always empty. Let's hope the yuppies and hipsters that frequent this popular Belltown strip will give the Coco Tree's more authentic ethnic flavor a chance.