Trinidadian Dictionary

Trini dishes

Benne balls: A delightful (and somewhat jawbreaking) confection made of sesame seeds.

Blue food (cf. provision): Dasheen is one of the hearty root vegetables (or ground provisions, as we say) popular in local cuisine. It has a bluish tinge, and is usually eaten boiled. Other common ground provisions include cassava, eddoes, sweet potato, yam and tania.

Buljol: Salted codfish shredded and seasoned with peppers, onions, tomatoes, and olive oil, often served in coconut bake.

Callaloo: Made from spinach-like dasheen leaves and okra; other ingredients may include coconut, crab and pigtail.

Coconut Bake: A type of bread made with grated coconut, often eaten at breakfast with buljol or cheese.

Cou-cou: A mixture of cornmeal, okra and butter, boiled and stirred till firm enough to be sliced (similar to polenta). Usually served with steamed fish and callaloo.

Crab n’ dumpling: A filling, savoury dish in which the crab is stewed with curry and coconut milk and served over flat flour dumplings.

Doubles: Curried channa (chickpeas) sandwiched between two baras (fried flour and split pea bread), usually eaten with a dollop of hot mango kucheela.

Oildown: Breadfruit is the main ingredient here, combined with salted meat and boiled down in coconut milk. Called “rundown” in Jamaica.

Pacro Water: An aphrodisiac made by boiling a local crustacean. Definitely an acquired taste.

Pastelles: Meat-filled corn dumplings cooked in banana leaves. Vegetarian variations are filled with soya or lentil peas.

Pelau: Pigeon peas and rice cooked with meat, sometimes flavoured with coconut milk.

Phulouri: Small, deep-fried balls made from a mixture of ground split peas and flour, served with spicy chutney.

Pigeon peas: Pigeon peas and rice is a popular dish for Christmas and New Year, said to bring luck and prosperity.

Roti: A flour wrap, accompanied by curried meat (goat, chicken, lamb, beef, shrimp) or vegetables. Dhalpouri roti made with split peas, is a thin wrap; paratha roti (often called buss-up-shut) is served in fragments, used to scoop up the accompanying dishes; sada roti is slightly stiffer, usually served with choka – vegetables sautéed Indian style.

Shark and bake: Fried leavened bread (bake) filled with a well-seasoned shark fillet, dressed with a variety of spicy condiments, including pepper, garlic, and chadon beni (cilantro) sauces.

Snow Cone or Sno-cone: Shaved ice, syrups made from guava, pineapple or kola and, if you ask for it, delicious, sinful condensed milk. Not just for kids.

Souse: Pig trotters boiled and served cold with a salty sauce of lime, cucumber, pepper and onions.

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Of course, we have more stuff than that, but you'll just have to research them. Trinidadian food cannot be described through writing, it's something that you HAVE to taste. Us Caribbean people LOVE to eat, no matter how big or small, we LOVE our bellies. LOL. It'd be cool for ya'll to visit Trinidad some day, it's an enjoyable place. I recommend coming around Carnival time (which is like February or March, it changes), August vacation (you call it Summer, we don't have summer. We only have a rainy season and a dry season, lol.) and Christmas (our Christmas isn't like America, mostly because we don't have snow. We don't really play music like Rockin' around the Christmas tree and such, we have Parang.)

Now, Parang is really awesome, and I can't really describe it. Honestly, the best thing to do, if you want more information, is to research Trinidad and our heritage and such. Here's a cool fact, we use to be joint onto Venezuala ;)  

The pic is what we call doubles!!!!!!! It tastes SOOO awesome!!