Goodies Jamaican Patties Delivery

Goodies delivers one thing and one thing only: the most delicious Jamaican patties that will have you thinking about them for a long time. These Jamaican savoury hand pies come in a range of flavours and make a delicious lunch or snack. This Jamaican staple street food is popular all around the world and now Maurice Hylton on the Northern Beaches delivers these goodies across Sydney.

The founder and creator of Goodies Maurice Hylton was born and bred in Waterhouse (Kingston, Jamaica) and migrated to Toronto, Canada with his family where he attended High School. He met his wife while travelling and moved to Sydney in 2006. "It was a tough call between Toronto and Sydney, I think it was the weather that tipped us over the line!" says Maurice. He maintained his connection to Jamaica through DJ'ing, hosting BBQ's at his backyard and travelling back to Jamaica and Canada as often as possible. And Goodies gave him a stronger connection during a hard time.

"I actually started Goodies at the height of the (2020) pandemic! It was a really tough year and I wasn't working. Friends and family recommended I start as a therapeutic way of managing stress. We've always centered everything social around our food and culture, so not being able to host cook ups with friends and family left a void I couldn't fill in lockdown. Goodies in a way has filled that void. Delivering around Sydney and getting feedback from people is so rewarding, knowing what the food and the culture means and the history behind the attachment to Jamaican food, it makes me feel so connected to them and the cause."

For those unfamiliar with Jamaican patties Maurice explains, "Jamaican Patties are a savoury flaky pastry with a meat or vegetable filling. I guess something like an Australian meat pie but spicy, somewhat flat and shaped like a rectangle with rounded edges! They have a distinctive yellow pastry, which is due to the addition of curry powder and in our case, natural ground Annatto which gives it the distinct deep yellow colour. A Jamaican beef patty (the most common filling) has thyme, scotch bonnet, scallion onion and pimento (allspice) seasoning. Beef is spicy and juicy and tender, complimenting the flaky mild pastry. Chicken, goat and vegetable fillings are curry based, in a traditional Jamaican curry flavour. Jerk chicken filling encompasses the delicious Jerk flavour of scotch bonnet, pimento (allspice), pepper and smoky BBQ undertones."

The Jamaican patty recipe is one derived from years watching his family and was developed with their help. "Growing up I would spend time with my grand aunt who lived in Trench Town. She used to bake and sell pattie crust and all sorts of baked goods at the side of the road at 4th Street in Trench Town. Real hustler. I remember going with her to the carnation market to buy supplies. We would catch the first bus leaving from Trench Town to the market. She would go up there like five days a week, every morning to get her supplies fresh since she didn't have a refrigerator and bring it back home. Back in those days she would bake out of a discarded stove using coal and wood fire. My Aunt was known in the area for her Patties, Bulla, Toto and Crust (traditional Jamaican baked goods)," says Maurice. His parents are avid bakers known for their Jamaican Rum Cake, which they sell and send all over the US and Canada. It was with his mother's help that guided their Jamaican patty pastry recipe, which was tweaked and altered based on the available ingredients here. The fillings are based on his mother's recipes of traditional dishes.

Goodies is still a family owned delivery only business and they deliver contactless. Their Jamaican patties arrive in cardboard trays and the regular sizes ones come with paper bags. They can be delivered frozen and ready to bake or already baked. Monica and I split our order of patties so we could try as many flavours as possible and I pick them up from Monica. There are two types of chicken: chicken curry and jerk chicken and we went with the latter. I heat the mini ones in the oven using the instructions and they come out piping hot. And that's the key to a Jamaican patty. Maurice says, "They should be steaming hot, so much that a song and dance ensues when eating them, blowing steam from the mouth and puffing as you go! Being covered in patty crumbs is also a must! Traditionally they are eaten as a hot snack or meal on the go in a paper bag, there are some hilarious memes and TikTok videos around patty eating!"

The jerk chicken filling is wonderful. Made with chicken breast and aromatic spices and a hit of chilli they're immensely edible. Mr NQN polishes off 4 and I eat 2 mini patties for lunch.

Then there's the spicy beef. Holy heavens these are incredible. Yes they are spicy because of the Scotch bonnet chilli but the beef mince is so flavoursome and moreish. There are some foods that you eat and you can't stop thinking about, and that's these beef patties.

We are so enamoured of these patties that I message Monica, "Do you want to split another batch?" and she answers "Yes!" straight away. As luck would have it, Maurice is making the goat curry special so we order some more beef as well as the chicken and goat curry patties in the regular size. The goat is plenty of shredded, spiced goat meat in a large patty size. The meat to pastry ratio is different in the larger ones and these are richer as there is more meat for the pastry.

The chicken curry patties are also delicious with a dry chicken curry with plenty of shredded chicken meat. It's a tough call to say a favourite but it's the classic beef followed by the jerk chicken and then the goat and chicken curry. And we bought enough so that we have stashed patties in the freezer so we always have something tasty to eat.

So who is his customer base? "It's a whole incredible mix of people - from British who miss the London corner store pattie, to Jamaicans to Filipinos to Canadians - it's been the most amazingly enjoyable experience meeting customers and learning about their connection to the humble patty! Australians who are new to the patty phenomenon are blown away, a real competitor to the Aussie meat pie!" He has plans to add Coco bread to the menu. "Coco bread is a sweet, hot bread baked with a slit in the middle to perfectly slide the pattie into, it counteracts the flaming hot spice of a patty with it's sweetness and gives a padding to the hands for an otherwise burning hot pastry! The traditional patty and Coco Bread combo is irresistible, but a little tricky to promote in this market as it's so new to those who haven't been exposed to Jamaican cuisine before (and it's literally carb wrapped in carb!)."

So tell me Dear Reader, how do you maintain a connection to your heritage? Have you ever tried Jamaican patties? Do you have a favourite Jamaican dish?

All of this food was independently paid for.

Goodies Jamaican Patties

https://www.goodiesjamaican.com/