Caribbean Islands : Trinidad and Tobago : Food and Dining

Trinidad and Tobago : Food and Dining

Dining in Tobago can be an interesting experience as Tobagonian cooking is a culinary hybrid: A strong African heritage; the copious use of native herbs, spices, hot peppers and fresh produce; influences from its sister island, Trinidad, with its racial diversity; and even India since there's a large population of Indians living in Trinidad.

Fresh fish often highlights menus in many restaurants and fine dining establishments in Trinidad and Tobago. Usually highly seasoned it is baked, fried, grilled, steamed or added to a broth. Chicken is another favorite food particularly on Sundays when it is traditionally featured for lunch. Baked or stewed it's served along with rice, red beans and macaroni pie.

An extremely popular food item in Tobago, especially for a takeaway lunch, is a roti, a soft, tortilla-like wrap, stuffed with a variety of fillings including curried meat and potato, conch, duck, shrimp, goat, beef, chicken or vegetables. Also, accras: small, deep-fried fish cakes made from salted cod, herbs and hot pepper.

Shark 'n' bake is famous beach fare in Store Bay, where there are a number of stalls selling local food. The 'bake' is a large, flat, doughy disk that's split open and filled with chunks of deep-fried shark seasoned with local herbs, served on a bed of salad with a dab of hot pepper sauce for some extra bite. Crab 'n' dumplin', is another favourite local food in Tobago. Whole blue-land crabs are boiled in a well seasoned coconut and curry sauce and served with dumplings.

Some popular dishes include: Callaloo, a rich, thick and highly seasoned soup made with dasheen leaves, okra and salt pork (a seafood variation uses crab meat). Chicken pelau has sugar-browned chicken--which gives the dish its signature flavour--pigeon peas, carrots and rice; all bound together with a delectable concoction of coconut milk, herbs, hot pepper, and garlic. Oil down is breadfruit steeped in coconut milk, salted pig tail, garlic, chives, and hot pepper.