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| "Doubles" vender on the Brian Lara Promenade |
I believe that one of the things "Trini" people like to do most besides liming...is to eat !
"A man like dey belly!".
While watching television this morning I stumbled upon one of my favorite TV shows, "Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern". The show was featuring the city of San Francisco and its diverse and well, bizarre food culture. One of the things that struck me was the city's most talked about "Food Trucks". I have read that the city has over 150 food trucks that park along the sides of streets, serving delicious gourmet foods for a cheap price and has become a major characteristic of their city.
This instantly reminded me of the various food establishments found across Trinidad. Our past history has allowed our country to be filled with people from all over the world, bring with them their food culture.Some of which are just as bizarre as the foods in San Francisco, seen and eaten by Andrew Zimmern himself when he visited for a recording for his TV show.
Located all over the city and elsewhere, there are venders like in the picture above who are famous for selling "doubles", one of the country's most favored street foods. It is an East Indian delicacy from heaven. Not only known for making doubles, East Indians have established "roti and curry" food restaurants, which can be found all over the city. Recently on the rise and probably the next best thing are "gyros" and Arabic dish. Not really a favorite of mines, but the businesses is quite a success. It is owned by Syrians living in the country and venders can be found right around the corner from your favorite "doubles" stand. I am however, a sucker for Chinese food. The Chinese culture is very evident in the city and they too have a great number of established food restaurants.
There are also many other types of street foods found within the city including; nuts vender, ice cream, snow cone and coconut venders. I have also seen some new establishments of old buses being transformed into mobile restaurants selling Fried foods.
Besides for the ever growing foreign fast food industries such as KFC, Burger King and McDonalds that can be seen spreading throughout the country, our diverse cultures and historical foods has still remained prominent within the city.
You may enjoy looking at the episodes below!
Andrew Zimmern Bizarre Foods Trinidad episode 1.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XU1ghzRL-8g
Andrew Zimmern Bizzare Foods San Francisco episode 1.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTpFXzADcZ0
Or viewing a local song about Doubles!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPecNRsq98A
