Food & Drink

The cuisine of Trinidad and Tobago draws upon the varied origins of its people. Tobago offers notable seafood specialities, lobster and conch with dumplings amongst them. Bean-sized oysters are a Trinidad delicacy.

Both islands serve West Indian, Creole and Indian cuisine, including dishes such as peppery pigeon pea soup with pilau rice and roti (flat bread stuffed with curried chicken, fish, goat or vegetables).

Breakfast Dishes

Many dishes are popular choices for the morning meal in Trinidad and Tobago. These dishes include:

• roti with bodie
• fried aloo (potato)
• roasted egg plant
• tomato choka
• salt fish
• buljol
• black pudding with fresh coconut bread

Lunch and Dinner

A nationally well-known main dish of Trinidad and Tobago is curry chicken and roti. This dish was adopted from East Indian roots, where other favourite local dishes include: curry crab, curry shrimp, curry duck, curry aloo. These meals are often served with various roties such as dhalpouri, bus-up-shot and sada. In addition, locals often add various pepper sauces to their meals such as curry mango, chataigne, channa, pumpkin or mango kuchela.

Another very popular and nationally well-known dish is callaloo, a creamy and spicy side dish made of dasheen leaves, ochro or okra, crab, thyme, coconut milk and shado beni (French thistle or Fitweed) or bhandhanya or cilantro. Callaloo is often prepared with cornmeal coo coo, plantain(type of fried banana), cassava, sweet-potatoes, and sometimes made with crab. Pelau, a rice-based dish, is also a popular dish in Trinidad and Tobago.

An array of fishes can be bought at local merchants all over the island, such as flying fish, king fish, carite, red fish and bonito. Crab, lobster, conch and numerous common sea foods are found all over the island. These dishes are usually prepared stew, barbequed, or curried with coconut milk. Another popular dish includes the rare delicacy cascadu (cascadura), a small fresh water fish. There is a local legend in Trinidad that if you eat cascadu, you will return to Trinidad over and over and over again.

Desserts

The popular local desserts paimie, pone and stewed guavas are extremely sweet. Other local desserts include: sweetbread, paw paw balls, tamarind balls, toolum, guava cheese, jub jub and sugar cakes. Indian delicacies like purma, gulab jamun and barfi are also popular.

Beverages

There are many different national beverages in Trinidad. These include various sweet drinks (sorrel, chubby, solo, and so on), Peardrax, portugal juice, ginger beer, mauby, malta, seemoss punch, barbadine punch, and soursop punch.

Rum shops are all over the island, serving local favourites such as ponche-de-crème, puncheon - rum, and home-made wines from local fruits.