Dr Var­ma Deyals­ingh

I nev­er thought a chick­en roti could make me this hap­py.

While wan­der­ing the streets of Am­s­ter­dam, the aro­ma of chunkay­ing cur­ry stopped me in my tracks. It led me straight to Cur­ry Cor­ner.

Here, 4,640 miles from home, I fi­nal­ly en­joyed a chick­en roti. Af­ter 19 days ex­plor­ing Eu­rope, it felt like a lit­tle taste of home.

I love try­ing the lo­cal food in every coun­try I vis­it, but this roti was ex­act­ly what I need­ed.

In Am­s­ter­dam, I sam­pled their stamp­pot—mashed pota­toes mixed with veg­eta­bles like kale or car­rots. I al­so tried bit­ter­ballen—crispy on the out­side with a pip­ing-hot meat fill­ing—and loved the sweet pof­fer­t­jes, fluffy mi­ni pan­cakes dust­ed with pow­dered sug­ar and but­ter, as well as their fa­mous stroop­wafels.

I sam­pled jen­ev­er, the Dutch gin tra­di­tion­al­ly served in an over­flow­ing tulip glass and of­ten paired with beer in the city’s fa­mous brown cafés.

His­to­ry says Dutch sol­diers drank jen­ev­er be­fore bat­tle, giv­ing rise to the phrase “Dutch courage.” The British lat­er adopt­ed and re­fined the art of gin mak­ing.

In France, I en­joyed fresh­ly baked crois­sants, duck con­fit—salt­ed and then slow­ly cooked in its own fat un­til ten­der—and desserts of del­i­cate mac­arons and a va­ri­ety of nougats from Mon­téli­mar.

Mal­ta of­fered its fa­mous street pie, pas­tizzi, and its unique Kin­nie soft drink. My food ad­ven­tures high­light an im­por­tant point: food and drink are a vi­tal part of tourism.

For­get those who say there is “noth­ing spe­cial about dou­bles.” Trinidad and To­ba­go has an in­cred­i­ble va­ri­ety of lo­cal cui­sine that can at­tract vis­i­tors, just as food tours do across Eu­rope.

That’s why I wel­come the new Tourism Board chaired by Bene­dict Hatem of Wood­ford Café. Hatem’s pas­sion for lo­cal cui­sine makes him well placed to show­case our coun­try’s unique flavours.

I be­lieve he can trans­form the Break­fast Shed in­to a true culi­nary des­ti­na­tion for both cruise vis­i­tors and lo­cals, keep­ing it vi­brant year-round, while al­so or­gan­is­ing food tours for vis­i­tors.

Imag­ine booths serv­ing Cre­ole dish­es from the ex­ist­ing pay­ing ten­ants, Chi­nese food from Dim Sum, roti from Ho­sein’s, and Lebanese-Syr­i­an cui­sine from Ama­ra—a food ex­pe­ri­ence that show­cas­es T&T’s di­ver­si­ty.

I would love to see every vis­i­tor wel­comed with a bowl of callaloo, dou­bles, and a red So­lo.

We have ex­cel­lent lo­cal beers, in­clud­ing Stag and Carib, with its range of Pil­sner, Blue, Caribe and Shandy. An­gos­tu­ra of­fers an im­pres­sive se­lec­tion of rums and its fa­mous Lime and Bit­ters, while Akal Chai Rum re­mains in a unique class of its own.

T&T of­fers one of the Caribbean’s most di­verse food cul­tures. Our cui­sine blends African, In­di­an, Chi­nese, Syr­i­an-Lebanese, Eu­ro­pean and In­dige­nous in­flu­ences, with Venezue­lan flavours now adding a vi­brant new di­men­sion.

A vis­i­tor can en­joy dou­bles for break­fast, dim sum for lunch, Lebanese cui­sine for din­ner, and hand­craft­ed desserts by night—all with­in a few kilo­me­tres.

Be­yond dou­bles, vis­i­tors should ex­pe­ri­ence pholourie, aloo pies, sa­heena, corn soup, roti, geera pork, bar­be­cue, bake and shark, and fresh co­conut wa­ter from road­side ven­dors—a true taste of T&T.

Our restau­rant in­dus­try is just as di­verse. Vis­i­tors can choose from fine din­ing restau­rants, wa­ter­front seafood es­tab­lish­ments, fam­i­ly-owned Cre­ole kitchens, au­then­tic In­di­an cui­sine, Chi­nese restau­rants, sushi bars, Ital­ian trat­to­rias, Lebanese restau­rants, con­tem­po­rary Caribbean fu­sion, and mod­ern bak­eries.

This va­ri­ety al­lows trav­ellers to ex­pe­ri­ence the world with­out leav­ing T&T.

To­ba­go has its own dis­tinct food cul­ture. Cur­ry crab and dumplings is the is­land’s sig­na­ture dish, while blue food made from dasheen has be­come a cel­e­brat­ed tra­di­tion dur­ing the an­nu­al Blue Food Fes­ti­val. Fresh seafood, lo­cal co­coa, trop­i­cal fruits and farm-to-ta­ble ex­pe­ri­ences show­case To­ba­go’s agri­cul­tur­al her­itage.

Food tourism ex­tends be­yond restau­rants. Events such as Restau­rant Week, the To­ba­go Blue Food Fes­ti­val, co­coa and choco­late ex­pe­ri­ences, rum tast­ings, and farm­ers’ mar­kets at­tract vis­i­tors look­ing for au­then­tic culi­nary ex­pe­ri­ences.

These fes­ti­vals al­low chefs, farm­ers, ar­ti­sans and lo­cal pro­duc­ers to show­case the best of T&T.

Be­hind every mem­o­rable meal are pas­sion­ate peo­ple.

In the 1970s and 1980s, Sylvia Hunt had our mouths wa­ter­ing with her cook­ing show on TTT, which aired just af­ter Rik­ki Tik­ki. She taught a gen­er­a­tion how to cook. To­day, chefs like Ja­son Pe­ru and award-win­ning cake artist Michelle So­han show­case the cre­ativ­i­ty and tal­ent of our culi­nary scene.

Our coun­try of­fers far more than beach­es and Car­ni­val. From out­stand­ing restau­rants to icon­ic spots like 277, where vis­i­tors might even meet Bri­an Lara, the ex­pe­ri­ence is unique­ly Trinida­di­an.

With au­then­tic flavours, rich cul­tur­al di­ver­si­ty, and vi­sion­ary lead­er­ship from Mr Hatem, I be­lieve Trinidad and To­ba­go has the po­ten­tial to be­come the Caribbean’s pre­mier food tourism des­ti­na­tion.