EACH of Abaina and Denval McKenzie's businesses – current and planned – is for one of their children. Their first business, a popular Jamaican takeaway in the Victoria Centre Market, is for three-year-old daughter Denecia. The next business they buy – they're already planning it – will be for three-month-old son Zephaniah.

And Dad's Kitchen, the Caribbean cafe and takeaway they opened last year on Alfreton Road, is for 18-month-old Abigail.

That might explain why Abigail walks around the place – and occasionally runs around it – like she owns it.

Laughing as she caught up with her smiling daughter and scooped her up, Abaina said that as the name indicates, Dad's is very much a family business.

"It's for the kids," she said. "Everything we're doing now is for them."

By "Everything we're doing now", Abaina largely means cooking up proper Jamaican and Caribbean food. The menu that stretches across the wall above the counter is practically a culinary tour of the island. From the ackee and codfish to the curry goat to the fried plantains, this is the food of a nation. And a region.

"Even though we do it in a Jamaican style, we find people from all over the Caribbean like it," Abaina said, adding that many popular dishes are the same, or have only minor differences on different Caribbean islands.

But the cafe's customer base isn't limited to the Nottingham Caribbean community. On that stretch of Alfreton Road, there's another group that appreciates good food that's not too pricey.

"We have a lot of student customers," Abaina said, then laughed. "They don't like to cook."

In addition to using the place as a takeaway, students have taken to the small back dining room. During the recent graduation season, the room was reserved several Saturdays in a row for graduation parties.

When the McKenzies first opened the place, the kitchen stood near the front and there was barely room for one small table. One of their first decisions was to expand, moving the kitchen further back and adding a large table where the kitchen used to be.

Behind a beaded curtain, the little dining room contains one large table that looks more like something you might find in a family's dining room. That's how the McKenzies like it.

"We don't want it to be too much of a restaurant, but we don't want it to be too much of a takeaway," Abaina said. They want it to be like eating at home.

A kitchen, if you will.

Recipe:

Dad's Kitchen chef Rolin Brown offered this traditional Jamaican recipe for codfish with rice and peas. Boil the codfish three or four times to get the salt out. Finely chop one onion and one sweet pepper. Heat oil for five or six minutes. Drop in onion and pepper. Head for another five, then drop in the fish. Then stir in one tin of ackee. Season the peas with onion, sweet pepper, coconut milk and butter. Boil for two hours. Mix in boiled rice.