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Given the island’s history, it’s natural that the native Amerindians, the Africans, Europeans, Chinese, and Indians should have made the greatest impact.

The Amerindians brought their knowledge of herbs and spices, discovered how to remove the poison from cassava, made staples of corn, pineapples, guavas, pawpaw and avocadoes, and ate and drank cocoa.

The Africans favoured root tubers, pigeon peas, saltfish, callaloo, and came up with black pudding and souse.

Europeans preferred citrus, mangoes, sugar cane, coffee and pickled things, while the Indians introduced more spices, curries and cooking skills from the east.
 

The restaurant scene

Most of the fine dining restaurants are in and around Port of Spain, with others in the east and the south. Spanish, French, English, Indian, Chinese, American, Italian, Lebanese, Japanese, Thai—it’s all on the menu.

Dinner menus are pricier than lunch menus, though fixed-price choices are becoming more common. A good three-course meal will run you about US$25 per head at lunchtime. The dress code is casual (within reason); reservations are recommended as dining out has become more popular with locals. A value-added tax (VAT) of 15 per cent is added to bills, plus a 10-15 per cent service charge.

If you don’t want anything too fancy, humbler restaurants serve more local cuisine, including the smart version called nouvelle cuisine, and Chinese restaurants are plentiful.

Some restaurants operate out of converted houses of traditional Trinidadian design, and are never short on ambience. Further down the food chain, international and local fast food operations are everywhere (Trinidad reputedly has the most KFC outlets per square mile in the world).

The local taste

But few visitors will have travelled to Trinidad in search of fried chicken, and in fact the most interesting food of all is probably the local fast foods from beach and street vendors.

A roti with all the fixings can cost less than US$4, and a doubles less than US$1. Garnishes of curry mango and chutney are usually on hand (but be careful with the pepper if you’ve got a sensitive tongue or stomach).

Corn soup, and corn-on-the-cob roasted on an open fire or boiled in a broth with local seasonings, are popular around the edge of the Queen’s Park Savannah. You can wash it down with some coconut water, or on a hot day cool off with some guava-flavoured syrup poured over a cup of shaved ice (a sno-cone).

At Maracas Bay, you’re missing a treat if you don’t tuck into a shark-and-bake—a round of fried dough stuffed with golden fried shark and as many garnishes as you’re tempted to try.
 

Some local favourites

• Snacks: doubles, souse, pastelles, roti, corn soup
• Soups: callaloo, sancoche
• Fillings: saltfish buljol, tomato choka, black pudding
• Baked: cassava pone, coconut sweetbread, fruitcake/black cake, coconut bake
• From the river: crayfish, crab, oysters, cascadura
• From the sea: lobster, mahi mahi, marlin, conch, kingfish, shark, red snapper, tilapia, shrimp, chip chip, squid, oysters
• From the forest: armadillo, possum, quenk, lappe, iguana. Outside the hunting season (October 1 to the end of February), hunting, sale, purchase or possession of wildlife is strictly prohibited
• Roots: yam, eddoes, dasheen, sweet potatoes, cassava, tannia, potatoes, topi tambu
• Fruit: mangoes, passion fruit, cashew, grapefruit, orange. portugal, shaddock, pommerac, pommecythere/golden apple, chennette/guineps, guava, melons, five fingers/carambola, sapodilla, soursop, pawpaw/papaya, pineapple, tamarind, peewah, chataigne
• Vegetables: breadfruit, avocado/zaboca, plantain, callaloo bush, pumpkin, christophene
• Sweets: toolum, guava cheese, pawpaw balls, shaddock candy, tamarind balls, sugar cake, ice cream and desserts flavoured with fruits, coconut and even Guinness
• Indian delicacies: barfi, jalebi, pholourie, kurma, saheena, baiganee, aloo pies, katchorie, sawine
• Drinks: sorrel, mauby, ginger beer, coconut water, seamoss, barbadine, soursop, rum punch, local wines made from local fruits, rum
• Condiments: chows and chutneys made from a variety of fruits, pepper sauce
• Herbs and spices: nutmeg, clove, garlic, ginger, chadon beni, peppers, roucou/annatto, bay, anise, thyme, lemon/fever grass, spring onion.