Trini’s love to eat and their food represents the diverse cultures of the country. There is a strong East Indian influence since 40% or more of the population is of East Indian descent. Equal (more or less) amounts are of Creole/African descent. There is a bit of Chinese, British, Syrian and Lebanese influence in local foods as well.

Today we joined our local friend and tour guide, Jesse, on a tour he calls “A taste of Trini”. Twelve cruisers loaded up in Jesse’s van at 09:00 and started our gastronomic tour of Trinidad. Below is a list of what we ate and where we ate it. Thanks to Leigh for compiling the list of food with the time and locations. I added a few bits of information about the food.



Time: 0900-1100
Where: In the bus sitting at TTSA
1. Coconut Bake (a bake is like a big bun)
2. Smoked Herring
3. Buljol (Salt Cod, veggies, spices)
Where: Along the road from Chaguaramas on the left
4. Doubles (two pancake like things with chick peas and lots of sauce made of mango, pepper and other spices) One of these is called a doubles- always plural.
Where: On Ariapita Avenue
5. Cow Heel Soup (yes, made of the heel of the cow) delicious!
Where: On road out of POS
6. Roast Bake
7. Patchoi (like bok choy)
8. Cheese Pie with Tamarind Sauce
Time: 1100-1300
Where: Valencia roadside
9 Bodi Beans raw
Where: Stand on right
10. BBQ Pigtail with garlic sauce. What this lacks in meat makes up for in taste.
11. Buttered Cassava
Where: Young's on left
12. Chicken Pelau (rice with chicken and vegetables)
13. Beef pie
Where: "Sandy Grandy" Sangre Grande
14. Chicky toe figs (small sweet bananas)
15. Silk figs (small sweet bananas)
16. Pomerac aka French Cashew
17. Kitchorie (fried split pea flour)
18. Baighanee (eggplant)
19. Aloo pie (potato pie)
Time: 1300-1500
Where: Stand on the right on the way to the beach at Mayaro
20. Brazil nuts fresh from the tree
Where: At the beach at Mayaro (lunch- can you believe we ate lunch after eating all morning?)
21. Paratha roti (buss up roti skin)
22. Dal puri roti
23. Chicken gizzards stewed
24. Baighan choka (roasted eggplant mashed with spices) I could eat a pint of this.
25. Curry goat
26. Stew beef
27. Curry chicken
28. Callaloo
29. Curry mango
30. Macaroni pie
31. Pineapple chow
32. Bake and Shark
33. Mauby- local drink made from the bark of a tree
34. Sorrel- local drink made with a species of hibiscus with sjpices
35. Peanut Punch
36. Seamoss/linseed- a seaweed drink that is reputed to be good for men
Where: On the road from Mayaro
37. Watermelon – perhaps the best watermelon I have ever tasted.
38. Pommecythere –pickled, also called golden apple
39. Pulouri –another fried thing
Time: 1500-1700
Where: A bakery in Rio Claro
40. Coconut sweet bread
41. Coconut turnover
42. Ballerina- more coconut pastry
Where: En route from Rio Claro
43. Milk fudge
44. Kurma- Indian sweet made
45. Barfi- made from sweeten condensed milk, flour- so sweet it hurts your teeth
46. Tamarind Ball-
47. Channa- fried spiced chickpeas
Where: Water park
48. Curry duck (yummmmm)
Time: 1700-1900
Where: On the road west
49. Cassava pone
50. Coconut drop
Where: (near) Grand Couva
51. Cocoa Bean (sucked the seed from a fresh cocoa pod)
52. Grapefruit from the tree
Time: After 1900
Where: El Pecos, POS at Ariapita and Verteuil (this is dinner)
53. Geera Pork
54. Fried plantain w cinnamon sauce
55. Green fig salad
56. Boiled and fried dasheen
57. Fried sweet potato
Where: Near St James amphitheater, POS
58. Ice cream -I had coconut pineapple
Where: Chaguaramas fruit stand near the new Boardwalk
59. Starfruit aka Five Fingers

The photo is of Jesse holding the seed of a brazil nut tree. The nuts are inside.