I have the privilege of marrying a Trini woman. We were over there recently and I wanted to delve deeper into Trini culture. You can’t miss the street food in Trinidad. People sell amazing food but some quite suspect, such as cow heel soup and pigtail souse! On most street corners you’ll find a mixture of vendors vying for space, like the coconut seller. Make sure you get one from the fridge, and if he has any jellies, drink the water then crack it open and scrape the jelly from the inside – awesome! Doubles comes from the Indian contingent of Trinidad, a curried chick pea (channa) concoction sandwiched in two pieces of a special bread called ‘bara’ – order at least three and definitely eat it on the corner. It’s hooootttt in Trinidad so a snow cone is a must, with flavours like mango or guava. Then there are watermelons and of course the dodgy CD seller pumping out loud Soca or, the Indo-Trinidadian equivilant, Cutney Soca. There are street corners everywhere. This cartoon video sums up the rivalry. You don’t even need to understand what they are saying to be tickled.
I headed out onto the streets of Sando (San Fernando) on a Saturday afternoon, with my father-in-law and hunted down as many vendors as I could. Here are some of the results. They were all really friendly and I got lots of free stuff.
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My favourite is the coconut guy with his head all wrapped up. He looks so amused.
My favourite is the coconut guy with his head all wrapped up. He looks so amused.
Yeah he's loving his coconut jelly
Yeah he's loving his coconut jelly