Street Food

Expect everything from roti and fried chicken to gyro wraps and Indian specialties, which can all be consumed without being worried about health risks, since the local vendors are subject to strict hygiene checks. Some of the most popular street food includes:

• Doubles – An Indian snack made from two pieces of fluffy, fried bara bread that envelops channa curry dresses with kucheela mango chutney, pepper sauce, and cucumber.
• Aloo pies – Pies that look like flattened fried balls of dough that are filled with spiced fish, beef, cheese, or potato.
• Pholourie – A fried snack served with tasty tamarind curry sauce and tart that is made from split-pea flour and looks like balls of dough.
• Sahina – A leaf fritter containing ground dasheen and channa.
• Small oysters served with a spicy and vinegary tomato sauce.
• Corn soup – A Creole dish made from mini dumplings, chunks of sweetcorn, a thick split-pea broth with vegetables, and corn soup.
• Accra – Another Creole favourite that is actually a spicy saltfish fritter.

Bake & Shark

One of the most popular and favourite local dishes is made from shark meat (seasoned and sliced) that is served in a fried bake. Consumed hot and slathered in palate-pleasing garlic, tamarind, and chadon beni sauces, it is also topped with salad and fresh pineapple, causing an explosion of tastes inside the mouth. You will find it primarily around Maracas Beach and at various eateries and street vendors across the islands (you will recognise the places that serve bake and shark from the long queues).

However, given the vital role sharks play in the fragile Caribbean ecosystems, and the fact that their numbers decrease year after year, which can have adverse consequences for the local fish population and the reefs, a more sustainable fish, such as mahi-mahi or flying fish tends to replace shark in this recipe in the recent years.

Roti Variations

Roti is the unofficial dish in Trinidad and Tobago and refers to flat bread that is used to wrap anything from fish and vegetables to curried meat. You can find it with seasoned split peas that are layered into the dough (dhalpuri), cooked on a hot griddle, and served with either fresh aubergine or tomato (sada), or another version.

As for the fillings, these can be shrimp, goat, conch, beef, curried chickpeas, sweet pumpkin, potato, local spinach (bhaji), and green beans, with the majority of vendors opting for meat on the bone. If you choose to eat roti at a restaurant, chances are you will be offered roti accompanied by a bowl of piquant lentil dhal on the side.

Local Fruits & Vegetables

Both islands are full of fruit and vegetables, the most unusual of which include:

• Sapodilla – Very popular, globular, and sweet grey-brown fruit with a gritty pulp.
• Chenets (aka guinep) – Cherry-sized fruit with sweet flesh and smooth green skin.
• Soursop – A fruit with a milky-white pulp, and green-brown skin.
• Kymet – Scrumptious purple fruit with a star-shaped seed.
• Pomme cythere (aka pomsite) – Often consumed green with hot pepper and salt, but is yellow and sweet when it ripens.

Other popular fruits are papaya, figs (bananas), pineapples, watermelon, lemon, grapefruit, orange, portugals, and several mango varieties, such as Julie (medium-sized, rose mango).

As for the vegetables that are the most frequently seen in Creole dishes, these would be yam, eddoe, dasheen, potato, sweet potato, and other boiled root vegetables. You will also see aubergine, dasheen leaves cooked to make callaloo, pear-shaped christophenes, plantain (often served as a healthier alternative to potato fritters), peas, which are widely used to make dishes such as green pigeon peas with coconut milk and rice or green lentils cooked with coconut and pumpkin.

Desserts and Sweets

Those with a sweet tooth will find heaven in the variety of local puddings, from the classic black cake to cassava pone with nutmeg. Other than that, you may also find the following sweets extremely inviting:

• Been balls – Crunchy balls of sugar and sesame seeds.
• Tamarind balls – Globes with a tart taste made from salt and sugar.
• Coconut cake – Made from boiled shredded coconut with pink food colouring and sugar syrup.
• Salt prunes – Seasoned prunes with a sweet and sour taste that are rolled in a red colouring dust. They may even have white rum tinges if dropped into rum.
• Red mango – This is actually well seasoned green mango that’s showered in bright red colouring.
• Toolum – A globe made from ginger, molasses and grated coconut.
• Pawpaw balls – Green papaya that is shredded and boiled in sweet syrup, before it is rolled in crystalline sugar.
• Home-made ice cream – You will find it everywhere, from supermarkets to street stalls, and is usually available in flavours like barbadine or cherry sorrel.

Popular Local Drinks

Beer is the number one most popular drink in Trinidad and Tobago, with Carib beer being the most favorite lager, followed by a little-more-robust Stag beer. A lower-alcohol alternative is Carib Pilsner Light, while Guinness beer is also brewed in Trinidad, having very little to do with the taste you will get elsewhere, though!

Of course, rum is largely produced here as well, offering dark and white versions, depending on the preferred level of alcohol (regular rums are 43% alcohol). For example, Forres Park puncheon rum has 75% alcohol! White Oak, Royal Oak, and Black Label are the most popular brands, which are usually mixed into a cocktail.

Other locally preferred drinks include home-made wines (hibiscus, aloes, banana, etc.) that are sweet and strong, along with soft drinks, such as Carib Shandy in ginger and sorrel varieties, Bentley (bitter lemon soda), LLB (a mix of bitters, lemon, and lime), and Ginseng-Up (energy boosting).

As for the most unusual options, these include mauby, a bitter, reddish-brown drink made from boiled tree bark, aniseed, and cloves, as well as sea moss combined with milk.