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The summer my husband was 16 and his brother 18, their parents decided to take their family vacation in Jamaica. My husband, Jake, came back from that vacation head over heels for two foods he had never experienced in his Boston upbringing: coconut fresh from the tree and delectably spicy jerk chicken.

On the beach near their hotel was a guy who'd scale a coconut tree in seconds flat, retrieve one for you, then crack it open with a whack of his cleaver. "Everyone everywhere had a cleaver on them," Jake says, including the man with the chicken. After marinating and cooking the meat for what might have been hours and might have been days in the 50-gallon drum he'd converted into a smoker, the man took his cleaver and hacked the chicken, bones and all, into pieces, and served it up on waxy paper plates.

The savory, intensely spicy meat was unlike anything Jake had ever tasted, and he's been chasing that taste ever since. So when Da Reggae Café caught my eye a couple of weeks ago, Jake was eager to give it a try.

Nestled among beauty shops, small churches and a bingo parlor in the Shops on Lee, Da Reggae Café has been offering Greensboro a taste of Jamaican food and culture since late last year.

The café is brightly painted in typical Rastafarian colors of yellow, red and green. Posters of reggae artists such as Bob Marley and Shaggy line the walls and three flat-screen televisions broadcast reggae music videos throughout the dining room. There's even a free Caribbean news monthly available.

Hungry on arrival, we ordered quickly, asking for our daughter's sautéed cabbage and side of rice and peas (red beans) to come out with the bowl of Pepper Pot soup we'd all share. She devoured her cabbage - shredded and seasoned and cooked up with slivers of carrot -- and enjoyed her rice and peas, too. The rice, cooked in coconut milk, is studded with beans and has taken from them a reddish hue.

The Pepper Pot soup is listed on the menu as having spinach, calaloo (another leafy green), okra, cured beef and coconut milk. Our bowl didn't have any meat in it and reminded me of a mild chicken broth with greens. It tasted good but was probably the least exciting of the dishes we tried.

The salads here sound tasty, featuring mixed greens with varying combinations of nuts and raisins, oranges and papaya. Jerk shrimp or chicken can be added to some of the salads for a couple of dollars.

For dinner, I tried the "Irie Mon" curried chicken. The generous portion came on a plate heaping with more of the rice and peas, sautéed cabbage, and some fried plantains. The chicken was juicy and bright with yellow curry. Flavorful but not spicy, it can be made more so with dashes of the bottled hot sauce found on every table.

There are oxtail, beef, pork and goat dishes to choose from, as well as a curried shrimp dish, a steamed fish filet with okra, and Escoveitched fish. A Jamaican specialty derived from the Spanish escabeche, in this dish the fish is fried then nearly pickled in a vinegary marinade that's fiery with scotch bonnet peppers and allspice.

I've heard good things about Da Reggae Café's rendition of this dish, and we were tempted to try it, but my husband just couldn't resist ordering the jerk chicken. Of course not quite the same as standing in a Jamaican street eating straight from the smoker, Jake found it reminiscent of that experience. The smokiness may have been missing, but the essential taste -- sweet and hot, savory and complex with herbs and spices -- was there. The chicken was perfectly grilled then chopped into pieces, bones and all. The jerked meat also came with healthy servings of rice and peas and cabbage.

In keeping with the Jamaican proverb printed on the menu -- "Better belly buss than food waste"-- we wished our server, who was incredibly sweet and warm, had let us know of all the sides accompanying our entrees when we ordered our daughter's dishes.

Between the soup and two entrees there was more than enough for the three of us to share.

Our bellies were too full to try dessert, but pineapple bread pudding and Sandhill peach cake are provided by local organic baker Auntie Mae. There's also a great selection of Jamaican beverages on hand, including Ting (grapefruit soda), ginger beer and pineapple soda.

Da Reggae Café promises diners an experience of island mood, food and hospitality. On all counts, I'd say they deliver.

Cheap Eats features local restaurants for diners on a budget. It runs every other week in Go Triad. Contact Angie DeCola at angiedecola@hotmail.com.