State College has been home to a variety of different global flavors. There is no shortage of possibilities if you are craving Mexican, Italian or Indian delicacies, to name a few. However, a niche that had yet to be carved out is the island flavor of Jamaica, and Mya’s Potroast Jamaican Cuisine is here to do just that.
Shushanna Castro started operating Mya’s Potroast in October 2025 after a successful pop-up event at Jamaica Junction. Open on Fridays for pickup or delivery, her offerings rotate and typically include one or two main dishes such as curry chicken, oxtail, stew chicken or jerk chicken wings. Some Fridays she even prepares jerk BBQ meatballs, which are infused with real bourbon.
They come with the Jamaican standard rice and peas or white rice. The ever-popular Jamaican staple beef patty, a savory turnover filled with ground beef and spices, is of course a featured appetizer at Mya’s.
While the kitchen and delivery system are less than a year old, Castro has been serving the area for years before that, just through word of mouth passed on by peers and old coworkers.
Originally from Jamaica, Castro moved from Queens, N.Y. to Centre County in 2019 to work in the healthcare industry. However, her son Justin’s commitments to college football recruiting programs and clinics made her realize she needed to take a step back.
“Is it going to be work or this young man?” Castro asked herself. “I was like yeah, I’m giving it all to him”.
After her son was accepted into a program, she realized that she couldn’t go back to a conventional 9-5 job and wanted to make time for her younger daughter as well. That’s when she started driving for Uber.
“I was there for her with everything. It got convenient making my own time, my own schedule,” Castro said.
While the student population in State College drops in the summertime, so unfortunately do the need for Uber fares. That’s when Castro decided to use her home kitchen and Jamaican cooking skills that had been so well complimented by friends and former colleagues.
She created a menu of what she would cook the following week, sent it out to the group via text message and had people place their order through her directly. That group soon blew up.
“I was cooking for a year from home and it was only on Fridays,” Castro said. “But the clientele kept on increasing and increasing. And I’m like, I can’t do this from home anymore. I needed a bigger space.”
That’s when a member of the Unity Church of Jesus Christ in College Township offered her a space in an industrial rental kitchen with plenty of room, just at the right time.
And when it came to naming the restaurant, Castro had no problem finding inspiration, naming it after her daughter and her son’s affectionate nickname “Pot Roast,” given to him when he played football at State College Area High School.
The larger kitchen has also given her more space to allow for her catering where her menu includes jerk pork, curry goat, BBQ fried chicken, Rasta pasta and other Jamaican specialties not listed but that Castro will be willing to fulfill upon request.
Castro also does meal plans for individuals or families. She can prepare breakfast, lunch and dinner plans for the week, and has even worked with athletes in the past to help with their protein-packed diets.
An important meal for those athletes, breakfast, included porridge. Castro, who raised her own children on the comforting dish, knows how to make it in a variety of ways, including cornmeal, peanut, banana and even three the hard way, which usually consists of plantains, oats, peanuts and cornmeal depending on individual recipe preference.
While making meals and catering out of a rental kitchen are on the docket right now for Castro, her dream is to open a space in downtown State College. She’s hoping to bring the same concept that cities like New York, for example, have at many Caribbean restaurants, where you can buy hot food and rare grocery items all in one location.
“The goal is to have a storefront downtown,” Castro said.
“I want to have the music playing. I want people to come in and feel like they’ve stepped into Jamaica.”
With a stationed store, Castro hopes to really shine and show off her skills by offering a variety of dishes at one time.
One that truly stands out is Jamaica’s national dish, ackee and salt fish. Ackee, also Jamaica’s national fruit, is usually sauteed with codfish, onions, tomatoes and peppers. Mostly popular at breakfast, it is commonly served with dumplings, which can be either fried or boiled, and fried plantains. On occasion, boiled green banana, yam, potato, breadfruit and bammy, a kind of fried bread made from cassava, are also served as sides.
She plans on having plenty of Jamaican goodies on hand like coconut drops made from coconut, brown sugar and ginger, gizzada, a pastry also made with coconut and spiced with nutmeg, potato pudding and a variety of fritters like codfish and plantain.
She would also like to sell Jamaican staples like hard dough bread, bulla cake, Easter bun and cheese and even black cake, a pudding type cake made with rum sometimes topped with icing, offered during Christmas time and at traditional Jamaican weddings and other special celebrations.
Castro and Mya’s Potroast Jamaican Cuisine will be a featured vendor at the Juneteenth celebration on Saturday, June 20, at the MLK Plaza in downtown State College.
Mya’s Potroast Jamaican Cuisine is open on Fridays from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. for pickup or delivery through DoorDash or Uber Eats. For catering and meal plan information, visit myaspotroast876.com.
