On my last day in Barbados, I headed off to an amazing supporter’s home for a traditional Trini food breakfast! As you may know by now, I visited Trinidad and Tobago in 2022 and fell in love with its cuisine. It’s one of my favorite cuisines in the world!
Auntie Indra is the reason why I came to Barbados—she invited me, and now she’d be cooking some delicious dishes from Trinidad for me and my friends Craig and Nerissa! She’s also Nerissa’s mom and owns the amazing Airbnb I’d been staying at!
She had already made some bara and smoked herring, and was also starting on the aloo pies and bakes. She had tamarind and mango sauces, as well as pepper sauce. Just watching the cooking process was taking me back to my time eating Trini food in Trinidad!
I met her cat, Ginger, and watched her flatten and fry the baras. Baras are the base ingredient for doubles, which is like a play on an Indian dish called chole bhature. They top it with chickpeas (chana) and sometimes vegetables and even meat. They also add different sauces like tamarind and pepper.
I even tried my hand at making and frying a bara, and then we fried an aloo pie, which is stuffed with potatoes. They’re almost like Trini potato empanadas! Then, she fried up some fry bake, which we’d be eating with some smoked herring.
Next she took the rest of the bara batter, molded it into balls, and fried them. These are called pholourie! They’re like little crispy fritters.
First, she boils and washes the herring, as it’s very salty. Then, she sautees some onions and peppers in a pan and adds the smoked herring, a Bajan pepper, and green sauce.
Then, it was time to eat our Trini food. We started with the doubles, which had an amazing, crispy dough. They were perfect with the chana, mango sauce, tamarind sauce, cucumber chutney, and pepper sauce! Then, I ate the rest of the filling with some pholourie!
I added some of my David’s Been Here Hot Sauce, which added a tropical kick with the pineapple and guava! It was fantastic!
Next was the aloo pie, which we added chana, tamarind, mango, cucumber, and pepper sauce to. The flavors and contrast in textures between the chana, cucumber, and pie were also excellent. What an amazing breakfast! My David’s Been Here Hot Sauce made it even tastier!
Next was the tomato choka, which is almost like a salsa, and the bake. You open it up and add the herring and choka to make a sandwich. It was smoky and a little salty, and the peppers were hitting me a little bit!
It was my last day in Barbados, so I was going all-out with the food. I couldn’t help but go back in for more pholourie and doubles. The food had me sweating!
If you’re ever in Barbados, stay at Auntie Indra’s Airbnb! It has one bedroom, one bath, a full kitchen, and more. It’s so close to the beach and is perfect, and maybe you’ll get to enjoy her amazing Trini food!
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