Food & Drinking Culture

On Trinidad, the day often begins with doubles, right at the roadside. Two soft, fried flatbreads, called bara, enclose curried chickpeas, topped with tamarind sauce, cucumber chutney, and fiery pepper sauce. It is the island's iconic street food and shows just how strongly the cuisine was shaped by indentured workers from India.

Roti is the next great dish: a thin flatbread, either dhalpuri, filled with ground split peas, or paratha, which gets torn apart for "buss up shut". It's served with curried chicken, beef, goat, or shrimp, plus potatoes and vegetables. Tearing the bread and dipping it into the sauce is exactly how it's meant to be eaten.

Pelau is a stew of rice, pigeon peas, and meat, first browned in caramelised sugar and then cooked with coconut milk and spices. Bake and shark, fried shark in a bun, belongs to the coast. All three dishes are bold, sweetly spiced or fiery, and that gives rum a role to play.

Why does rum pair so well with this food? The brown sugar in pelau and the caramel of an aged rum play on the same note, while curry and pepper sauce benefit from something round alongside them. That is flavour logic, not a rule, and there is no such thing as a standard pairing on the island, though there is a tradition of serving rum alongside food and conversation.

Rumshops, the island's small bars, are gathering places for talk, games, and food. Island-style rum punch is often finished with a dash of Angostura bitters and freshly grated nutmeg. Carnival falls in the days before Ash Wednesday: on Monday, J'ouvert begins before sunrise, followed by costume parades, soca, and steelpan, the metal-drum instrument that originated on Trinidad.