Paul Carmichael Boils Kabawa Down to a Single Dish

After remixing fine dining at Momofuku Seiōbo in Sydney, Paul Carmichael has returned to New York to claim the former Ko space for something deeply personal. Kabawa isn’t just a restaurant; it’s a pan-Caribbean sanctuary where Carmichael trades trend-chasing for the slow-simmered spirit of the islands. The result is a place where everyone is dying to eat. But while the masses might be posting the goat or the chuletas can-can, it’s the black bass with curry that reveals his ethos: a seemingly simple dish defined by regionality, patience, and a sauce months in the making.

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“We all know how media works. The New York Times wrote about the goat dish and now everybody likes the goat. The goat is a great dish, but this is the day and age where people don’t really form their own opinions. Instead of having a conversation with the server or a cook, they look online to see what they should order.”

“It’s a place-and-time dish. Black bass is found all around the Northeast, and I wanted to use something that was bountiful, local, and somewhat sustainable. I wanted to serve it with something representative of the menu, which for me is broken down into colonial groups. So this fits an English-speaking Caribbean vibe.”

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“This whole restaurant felt risky, so a dish is not going to scare me.”

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“A Trini curry generally uses some sort of yellow, turmeric-based powder, and that’s what we use. We make our version and then we make a base and then we make a sauce.”

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“Trinidad curries have a long history. It went through slavery like everybody else in the region and then had a large influx of Indian and Chinese indentured servants after slavery was ‘abolished.’ And because Trinidad is not India, the ingredients available there were very different, also based on the fact that Britain had such a large influence on both India and Trinidad.”

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“Was it line-caught? Was it just caught in a huge net and dragged across the bottom of the ocean all beat up? Was it bled properly? Was it bled at all? All those things matter.”

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“We dry the fish for a day so the skin gets dry and can get a good char, and then it’s simply grilled with salt, flipped onto a plate, brushed with seasoning pepper, oil, lime juice, and lime zest.”

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“The sauce took a little while. It’s very different from what we opened with. My measuring stick is if a person from the region comes in and has it and they’re like, ‘Yo, this takes me back. This has moved me in a certain way.’ So I worked on that sauce for three or four months. It’s now in a place where I’m going to leave it alone.”

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“We make curry powder, which has a bunch of spices in it—turmeric, allspice, habanero, cumin, coriander, fennel seed, anise seed. Then we make a base which is curry powder, onions, garlic, ginger, and a bit of oyster sauce. The base carries most of the flavor, so putting the sauce together is quite simple. It’s the base plus seasoning peppers, butter, stock, etc. And then that’s blended, strained, and it’s finished at service time with a touch of lime juice.”

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“The beautiful thing about restaurants, and especially a restaurant like this, is the feedback is instant. And the proof is in the pudding. When we first opened and we were in review season, the dish wasn’t as good as it is now, so it made sense why it wasn’t people’s favorite.”

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“I can give you the recipe but it wouldn’t be as good as if I made it. I can guarantee you that.”

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“Black bass brings regionality. Part of my ethos is, I’m in New York, I’m not in Barbados. So I want to use tasty things that are high quality and fished sustainably. Every fisherman’s different. It’s like any other profession. Some people care a lot and some people care very little. Some people are in it for the money and some people in it for the craft. I need to find like-minded people. I’m looking for people who are in it for the craft and not really in it for the buck, because the buck will come if you’re doing really good things.”

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“I can give you the recipe but it wouldn’t be as good as if I made it.”

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