Who dont like it, lay down side it!

The title for this blog comes from a Trinidadian saying where a mother will cook food for her family, and any member of the household that is not pleased with the day's offering could very well not eat but lie next to the food!! (I never got it either)

The idea for my blog entry today came from a fellow blogger from Jolly old England Squared Off I read of some of the food that England had to offer and some of it looked really gross and some not so gross! Surprisingly some of it I thought was Trinidadian owned like the black pudding! I know pudding is popular in England but that particular type I thought was strictly Trinidadian! Live and learn. It is however really interesting to see what some countries consider every-day fare.

I would like to introduce to some of my local dishes and delicacies, and give you some idea of what goes into it and how it is prepared.

I must add that our population is roughly 1/2 Afro-Trinidadian and the other 1/2 East Indian-Trinidadian. So that Indian food is commonplace as well as African food!

My first dish is called 'doubles' it can be a snack, breakfast or even lunch! It is bought only on the street and is made up of two flat bread filled with curried Channa or what you guys may know as chick peas or garbanzo beans. What makes it delicious is the fillings like mango chutney and pepper!!

Another is calalloo I spent a long time looking for a picture of calalloo online until I remembered that I cooked calalloo today!! Pardon the pic though I used my camera phone as a friend borrowed my regular camera. Calalloo is made from a green leaf that has as it's root a ground provision called dasheen, so the dasheen grows in the ground and the calalloo bush grows above the ground and it is all used! To the calalloo bush you add okras, pumpkin, chive, celery, garlic and salt to taste you can throw in a few pieces of crab and even some salted pig tails for the extra flavor! It is a traditional Sunday dish that has it's roots in Africa.

So this is the dasheen 'bush' that grows on top of the dasheen that we use to make our calalloo.
And this is the ground provision that grows in the ground underneath the callalloo bush, we boil this 'dasheen' and eat it as a starchy part of any meal. It is usually blue when it is boiled and it tastes great with your Sunday meal or in a soup!

Coo-coo is another African dish that is very popular and goes well with calalloo, it is made with okra, carrots and seasonings and corn meal is added, it is somewhat like a bread, maybe similar to cornbread! (btw I made coo-coo today as well!)

Another immensely popular Indian dish is Roti, similar to doubles except the wrap is firmer kind of like a pita bread but softer and the wrap has split peas in it. In the wrap you normally have the chick peas as well as curried chicken, or beef, or goat! as well as curried potato. It is heavenly and very filling and fattening! (but all the good stuff are!)

I hope you enjoyed a taste of Trini cuisine, and I was also glad i could share 2 of my home-cooked local dishes with you guys today!!