Curry, Callaloo & Calypso - Macmillan Caribbean

Our annual Carnival unites our people further; calypsonians
even pay homage to both cuisine and country with calypsos
such as Denyse Plummer’s ‘Nah Leaving’ and David Rudder’s
‘Trini to d Bone’. What began as the land of calypso, steel band
and limbo, has evolved into the land of calypso, soca (a more
upbeat calypso music), chutney (a fiery Indian baggan or song),
most recently chutney soca (a fusion of Indian and African
music), limbo and of course, still, the ever-engaging alwaysmesmerizing
steel-band music. Carnival is a festival which pulls
many foreign visitors to our shores and gives us a chance to
display our warm hospitality. In so doing we are able to ‘show
off’ the many foods we as Trinidadians and Tobagonians hold
dear to our hearts – bake and shark, crab and dumpling, corn
soup, pelau, roti, rum punch, stew, accras, callaloo and coo coo,
mauby, sugar cakes and bene balls, to name but a few!
Curry, Callaloo & Calypso celebrates this unity
by embracing all our cuisines; no more are
ethnic-specific foods prepared only at home by
the relevant ethnic group. Good cooks abound
on our islands, some with modern techniques
and some who still hold on to traditional
methods. Ours is cooking from the soul, always
good, always tasty, gutsy and comforting.
Breakfast is offered in sada rotis,
sandwiched with a variety of cooked
vegetables, and bakes, also with a variety
of fillings, fish salads and accras (fritters).
Lunch, which used to be the main meal of the
day, is now mostly enjoyed while on the job,
purchased at many small eateries across our
islands and comprising a hot local lunch of a
hearty soup or stewed meat or fish,
provision, peas, rice and a salad.
Dinner is home-cooked: a stew,
grilled or curried meat or fish, with
a provision or rice, and a vegetable.
Dessert is usually cake and ice cream,
but not just any ice cream – local
flavours here range from coconut
to sour sop, passion fruit, guava,
and even Guinness. Fresh fruits are
enjoyed round the clock. Nothing
beats peeling down a starch mango
with your teeth and biting into the
sweet flesh, while juice runs down to
your elbows! Or savouring a sugary
ripe sapodilla, rich with aromatics,
tender and juicy, or being amazed at
the beauty of a Pink Lady paw paw
just sliced open.
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Steel bands
Carnival characters
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