Can't get any more street than 'round d savannah!

Poui trees abound in the savannah. I remember growing up, my teacher used to say when you see poui trees blooming, you know exams coming! I had a love-hate relationship with poui ever since then...gorgeous delicate blooms, bearing ominous tidings! 

Known locally as "the Savannah," the Queen's Park Savannah is Port of Spain's largest open park and the largest round-about in the world. It occupies about 260 acres of level land. Once sugar-cane land, it was bought by the town council in 1817 from the Peschier family (except for a small parcel near its centre that served as the Peschier cemetery, which remains privately owned).

At first the savannah was used as a vast cattle pasture in what was then the town's suburbs, but by the middle of the 19th century it had become established as a park.

In the early 20th Century it was used as an airstrip when there were no airports. Until the early 1990s, horse racing was held frequently at the Savannah race track, and there are several cricket, football and rugby pitches. 

The Savannah was never formally landscaped, except for the small area in its northwest corner called the Hollows, a former reservoir now drained and is probably the most lush area of the savannah.

But on a Friday and Saturday the Savannah comes alive with food! From boil corn and oysters to coconut water and bake and shark. No need trek down the highway or to Maracas Bay! The food is coming to you. 

I remember "breaking biche" and walking from Belmont to South Quay in my high school days. Breaking biche is a saying originating in Trinidad meaning to miss attendance at school, deliberately and without legitimate excuse. But I had a legitimate excuse. School was boring! The walk around the savannah was seemingly endless but picturesque - out of a story book. I had the company of my two best friends as they broke biche too!

Get that great creole flavour with Golden Ray!

Sancoche - This has to be among the top 3 soups in Trinidad (corn soup and fish broth there, don’t worry!). Spending August holidays at my grandmother’s house meant “dumpling sup” which is what we knew it to be.

I would stand in her small, modest kitchen and watch her from start to finish. Nimble but strong hands – to cut up provision and gently roll dumplings into this specific shape she insisted upon for this classic Trini soup. When food was ready, she would call out to us, “Chirren! Chirren!”

Generally the soup base is split peas, as with corn soup. But, there is also a heavy helping of ‘grey steel’ (ground provision) whatever kind you may have on-hand (dasheen, eddoes, cassava, sweet potato, yam) salted meat (beef or pigtail) or fresh beef (referred to simply as beef soup) and of course, wheat flour dumplings.

Any other vegetables like carrots, pumpkin, plantain, green fig and ochre are welcomed. Maggie soup and/or bouillon cubes was our choice of flavour enhancer together with lots of garlic, onion and hot pepper. 

This soup is thick and rich and hearty. Of course, there must be a thin film of melted golden ray butter over the top.

"Get that great creole flavour with Golden Ray!...and if you haven't got Golden Ray, you could boil an egg or something"...you remember that commercial on the radio?? Trinis win yes.

Cow heel soup - I don’t know why Trinis named this part of the animal “cow heel”. Sounds so dainty and lady-like. But it's so not! 

High heels make my calves look sexy!

My father took a delight in eating this for lunch at his work canteen almost every day. Who could blame him? The soup is similar to sancoche but most people have their own variation of the basic recipe. One thing is a must and that is to pressure cook the meat which is very tough – the tendons make it so. There is a somewhat gelatinous texture to the soup....

Oxtail soup as the name implies, contains oxtail. The soup is similar to sancoche but the oxtail is the star here. This soup requires both a spoon and clean hands to do it justice.

Rain or shine, these Trini soups fill you up to the top! And there's no such thing as a "small pot of soup" in Trinidad...

Tobago - beach food, sun and fun in the sand

The beautiful Store Bay, Tobago. Good food, sun, fun in the sand.

Store Bay, Tobago

The food stalls in Store Bay are known for their delicious home-cooked local cuisine.

Callaloo is a complex dish composed of dasheen bush (taro) leaves, ochre, pumpkin, seasonings like onions, garlic, black pepper, hot pepper and flavourings e.g. pig tail or salt pork, crab, coconut milk. It is eaten with rice or with ground provisions.

Callaloo

Chicken and pigeon peas pelau. A definite accommodation of the Spanish Pilaf, the pelau in Tobago is made with fresh pigeon peas.

Chicken and pigeon peas pelau

Stewed pork with rice is a staple in certain months of the year in Tobago

Stewed pork served over plain white rice

Breadfruit or jackfruit

Oil-down and pig tail made by boiling breadfruit in coconut milk and seasoned pig tails.

Boiled ground provisions are an important part of the trinbagonian diet. These are root vegetables and include cassava, sweet potato, dasheen, tania, and yam. Boiled green bananas (fig as we call it) and plantains sometimes are offered together with boiled ground provisions.

A Trini addiction

A spicy snack for any occasion - fried channa (garbanzo beans or chick peas) are sold all over Trinidad and there are many brands of commercially made channa to choose from these days – Patsy’s, Munch Kings, Anthony’s to name a few. They are cheap to make, simple to prepare and deliciously addictive. One tip: the older the bag of channa, the harder the crunch so take care.

Fried whole channa - Oh my word that looks lethal!

School yard vendors used to sell homemade fried channa in paper cones or in little plastic bags which were stapled to seal them. As children, our teeth were used to open everything, so there were times my lip would get caught in these staples. I didn’t care. The salt would cure it.

The usual suspects for any spicy fried snack are present: minced garlic, chadon beni, hot pepper, salt. Soaking the channa prepares it for frying as it rehydrates the beans and wakes them up. The trick is to fry the channa in oil until they float which means they’re cooked. You then toss the seasonings in the hot channa to remove the raw garlic taste. Some suggest shredding a little cheese over the channa. 

Seasonings used to make fried channa

Some say oven-roasting the channa instead of frying makes for a healthier snack. I prefer the traditional preparation.

You can also split the channa into its two cotyledons during the soaking process – this is called split fried channa. There’s also the no-pepper version but who wants that??

Split fried channa

I screwed up my face the first time I heard someone refer to them as “channa nuts”. What is channa nuts?? Can something be both channa and nuts?

The Debe experience - Part 2 - Sweet

Another aspect of street food in Debe is the wide range of East Indian sweets offered for sale. Debe is also known for its delicious Indian sweets like kurma, goolab jamoon, barfi, jalebi, and even non-Indian sweets like fudge, sugar cake and peanut brittle.

A vendor in Debe smiling and ready to serve

Laddu or laddoo are ball-shaped sweets made of flour and sugar. They are often served at festive or religious occasions but you can find them at any time in Debe!

Ladoo - golden and delicious

Jalebi is made by deep-frying a wheat flour (maida flour) batter in pretzel or circular shapes, which are then soaked in sugar syrup. The deep orange color comes from turmeric include in the flour mixture.

Jalebi

Kurma is made with wheat flour, milk, coconut milk, spices which is combined into a stiff dough then fried and tossed in simple sugar syrup.

Kurma

Goolab jamoon is similar to kurma except that condensed milk is used to keep the dough soft.

Goolab jamoon

Barfi is a powered milk based Indian sweet that is moulded and topped with colored sprinkles. Debe now offers differnt flavours of barfi including soursop and coconut.

Barfi

The Debe experience - Part 1 - Savoury

Travelling to South to visit relatives was an onerous chore for a little child. You’re stuck in a slow-moving car for at least 2 hours with no entertainment, save for singing tunes from Sesame Street and telling lame jokes. The scenes from the country-side quickly merged into one as little tummies grumbled. The only hope was to stop at Debe to buy delicious Indian snacks. That meant continuously asking what the time was in eager anticipation of lunch.

Debe (or Débé) is a town in south Trinidad located in the Penal-Debe Region.

Debe has grown from a small village settlement into a key transit point. Historically, Debe became important as a train depot during the sugar-cane production era. Villagers began selling home-made lunches and sweets to travellers and workers on the train line.

There used to be a long stretch of food stalls erected just in front of the homes of enterprising individuals. In my child’s mind, this meant the food would never run out because they can always go home and make more!

Tripadvisor rated Debe food stalls as a 4.5/5 

(https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g147389-d3777463-Reviews-Food_carts-Port_of_Spain_Trinidad_Trinidad_and_Tobago.html#REVIEWS).

Debe as a rural community

Despite the shutdown of the sugar-cane industry in Trinidad, Debe is still widely known for Indian street food and delicacies e.g. saheena, poulourie, baiganee, aloo pie etc.

Baiganee is slices of melongene (baigan) coated in a split pea flour and fried to golden perfection. They can be eaten as is or accompanied by curried mango, mango anchar, or pepper sauce.

Aloo pie is a flour dough shell that is stuffed with spiced potato filling and accompanied by seasonings like pepper sauce, curried mango, curried channa

Kachori is a split peas flour savory concoction that is deep fried and served with a spicy condiment like mango chutney.

Saheena is a simple fried delicacy composed of taro leaves (dasheen bush leaves) folded or rolled in a split peas flour batter and then fried.

Street foods are ready-to-eat foods and beverages prepared and/or sold by vendors represent a significant part of urban food consumption for millions of low-and-middle-income consumers, in urban areas on a daily basis in developing countries according to the FAO. Street foods may be the least expensive and most accessible means of obtaining a nutritionally balanced meal outside the home for many – this is the case with doubles.

I think the Debe experience epitomizes the importance of street food preparation and sales in providing a regular source of income for many of men and women with limited education or skills in an otherwise impoverished area. The outcome is a thriving and bright Debe that looks remarkably different from decades past but whose primary product remains delicious and convenient street food.