After landing in Trinidad and Tobago, I met up with a couple of friends to go on an amazing Trinidadian street food tour of Port of Spain at night. Along the way, I tried a controversial favorite–gourmet Trinidad doubles–as well as Syrian and Lebanese food and a fruit dish called chow!
After night fell on this beautiful island, I linked up with my pal Chef Jason Peru, who would be with me for the rest of my trip through Trinidad and Tobago. Our first order of business was exploring the street food stands along Ariapita Avenue! The street never sleeps!
Our first stop was Doubles Den, which sells doubles. Doubles are flatbread sandwiches made with bara (a fried, golden flatbread) topped with channa (chickpea curry), various chutneys, and sometimes meat and vegetables.
Here, they can add curried duck, goat, lamb, chicken, shrimp, and more! They have tons of delicious sauces! I wanted a bit of everything. The gravy from the duck looked so rich!
I learned that they hang the bara up for a few minutes to let it dry a bit, so it can absorb the flavors of the other dishes more readily. You tear the bara and use it to pick up the various ingredients.
I loved the bara. It had an omelet-like texture. The meat was so tender and flavorful. The duck was incredible, as were the coriander and curried spices. I loved the fat and the meat falling off the bone. The flavors were insane!
Doubles are traditionally more simple and just veg dishes. These are more gourmet doubles. Some people are doubles purists, but these gourmet ones are also pretty popular! Do you like gourmet doubles? Or do you think you shouldn’t mess with a classic? Let me know in the comments!
After our gourmet Trinidad doubles, we hopped in the car with our friend David and drove to Yousef Gyros, where they serve Syrian and Lebanese food. The place was packed as it’s super popular! I saw them cooking fries, lamb shawarma, fried chicken wings, beef, falafel, and more! We went with a lamb and beef gyro.
They built us a gyro with lamb, beef, tomatoes, peppers, mushrooms, barbecue sauce, garlic sauce, ketchup, cheese, and pineapple on a toasted pita. Their gyros were huge and so delicious. There were so many flavors and textures.
The crumbly, caramelized beef and the thinly cut lamb were excellent. The pineapple added some sweetness, and the vegetables were nice and refreshing! It was big and messy and so good!
Then, they brought us fries, fried pita chips, and some massive chicken wings with ketchup and garlic sauce. The chicken was high quality, perfectly seasoned, and crispy. The garlic sauce was good enough to drink! The garlic sauce on the pita chips was excellent. Then, they brought us a salad made up of the gyro filling!
From there, we drove three minutes to Queen’s Park Savannah, a huge, 260-acre recreational area with historical buildings and food vendors. There were so many people there!
At Jam Bites, we grabbed some chicken feet in a pickled sauce with cucumber. The cucumber had a nice flavor, and the gelatin-like skin and cartilage of the chicken feet were good, but the chicken meat and fat at the bottom had more flavor!
They added some chadon beni (culantro sauce) to the liquid in the cup for some added flavor. Then, I chugged the liquid. It was sharp and herbal!
Then, we saw vendors selling chow, which are bags of various picked fruits and vegetables with a salt, black pepper, lime, garlic marinade. They can do it to pineapple, watermelon, mango, plums, and more!
We got a pineapple, watermelon, prune, and mango chow. The pineapple was pickled, peppery, sweet, and savory. The watermelon was so unique and spiced, while the prune was meaty. The juicy fruit and savory spices were unreal!
Then, we finished with a fresh pineapple-orange-passionfruit-grapefruit juice. It was a sour, sweet, and refreshing way to end our Trini street food tour! The gourmet Trinidad doubles were my favorites, but everything else was great, too!
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