Category Archives: Food

Peanut punch in Trinidad and Tobago

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When traveling, amongst a whole host of things I love learning is finding out what different foods, drinks, and condiments people love in other cities and countries that are different from what I have been exposed to. Everyone’s “normal” around the world is very different, and it’s fascinating to learn about. Pepper sauce is huge throughout the Caribbean, with different types of peppers and seasoning combinations in every place. In Barbados, one of our Uber drivers told us they have a hot sauce so hot that they use just “one drop” of it on their food, and it’s enough for good flavor AND some heat that will set your mouth on fire. The same driver told us that they have another hot sauce that is glaringly hot that many locals don’t even touch it. Colloquially and locally, they call it… the n-word sauce (I mean, he said it; we didn’t!). While in St. Lucia, we tried a few different restaurant variations of pepper sauce that were both very different from each other, but both with very rich, distinct flavor. And at our Port of Spain, Trinidad hotel, the pepper sauce was FIERY. We asked what peppers were in it, and our server at breakfast said it had scotch bonnets (which we figured) and chocolate moruga peppers, which are one step down from one of the hottest peppers on earth — the scorpion pepper.

One thing I noticed at multiple shops, convenience stores, and supermarkets while in Trinidad was peanut punch. It seemed to be pretty mcuh everywhere, and I even saw some people on the street drinking from containers that had “peanut punch” on the label. So one night when we went out for doubles and quick drinks to take back to the hotel, I grabbed a single-serving bottle of peanut punch just to try it. It tastes like you’d imagine: peanutty and milky, but very, very sweet — almost too sweet! The surprising thing was that there was another ingredient I wasn’t expecting: whey protein powder! It was the fourth ngredient listed on the label after peanuts, water, and sugar. Unfortunately, this is more of a “treat” drink than a body builder or workout fanatic’s drink, as the sugar content is far too high on this to be considered a regular protein drink. But I could see a variation of this (with a fraction of the sugar) being a good protein add in one’s diet. The “high protein” lifestyle is one that I’m slowly but surely adapting to in my 40s, so this is always top of mind for me now even when I’m not vocal about it.

Mangoes with black spots = sign of ripeness in other countries, but a sign of rot/”bad” in the U.S.

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One thing I noticed while eating the many varieties of mangoes we were lucky to taste across four Caribbean islands on this trip was that many of them are ripe when they have black spots. This is actually a good thing, not a bad thing: it signals to us that they are ready to eat, and we should eat them right away! This was the case for the Julie and mango longues, and especially true for the starch and dodo mangoes. We got told from multiple vendors, as well as our smoothie guy who gifted us the five cutlass mangoes in Port of Spain, that black spots were a positive thing. The funny thing is that I told Chris that this would absolutely not fly in the U.S. You could never have a display of mostly black spotted mangoes in the U.S. and actually get those to sell — no freaking way!

The strange thing, though, is that black spots with mango varieties readily available in the U.S. — so Ataulfo (champagne, our default from March to June) and Kent — actually are not good when they have black spots. For these two mango varieties that come from Mexico, black spots are a sign that they have really gone bad or are about to go bad. I know this after peeling and cutting hundreds and hundreds of mangoes over the years. Sometimes we don’t monitor the mangoes closely enough, and the black spots appear. And once the spots appear, this is truly a sign of rot. Those parts don’t taste good, or they actually smell off. Some of them become mush in the parts where the black spots are.

The American public is quite superficial when it comes to produce. Everyone wants picture-perfect fruit and vegetables, oftentimes at the expense of taste, flavor, and even nutrition. It’s partly why mainstream supermarket tomatoes look super red and plump but often taste like nothing or are mealy in texture inside. So I doubt that even if Trinidad and Tobago could export mango longue or starch mangoes to the U.S. that they would do well from a sales perspective outside of ethnic markets in neighborhoods with a large Caribbean population. That is sad, a real loss for someone like me who wants every single mango variety possible at the tips of her fingers!

Eating out while in the Caribbean – so many fresh vegetables!

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While we stayed at four different hotels across four different island countries in the Caribbean, and two of the hotels were all-inclusive, I felt like from a vegetable-eating standpoint that this was likely the best trip we’ve had to date for vegetable access. Since we were out and about in Barbados and Grenada where we stayed at all-inclusive properties, we still managed to have some meals out while on the go. In the all-inclusive buffets, it was easy to get vegetables. At the restaurants om property, getting vegetables was straightforward. And with most dining options we had, vegetables were quite ubiquitous. This is always what I’ve enjoyed about dining out while outside of the U.S.: it never feels like vegetables are add-on sides that are terrible value. I guess there are some exceptions to this (while in Taiwan, I do not recall eating many vegetables to be honest; street food in Taiwan is not very vegetable forward!). Vegetables are usually included as side dishes you order. Sometimes, the vegetable options are fixed. Sometimes, the vegetable options are what you choose. And other times, the vegetables are half fixed, half chosen by you. While you may order ginger pork or grilled fish as we did during our one lunch out in Grenada, those mains came with several vegetable options, like stewed pumpkin or callaloo (like Caribbean spinach), bok choy, coleslaw, or taro/sweet potato. I really enjoyed eating all the different vegetables we had across the Caribbean and seeing different preparation methods. Before this trip, I also had no idea how popular sweet potato and pumpkin in general are across these countries. I knew callaloo, taro, and spinach were popular. Potato and coleslaw seemed like predictable dishes to have on menus. But the pumpkin being everywhere was a surprise to me, especially since I consider it a fall/autumn vegetable. So, I’ve definitely learned a lot about Caribbean food culture in the last two weeks.

Whenever we’ve come back from trips where we haven’t eaten too many vegetables, it’s like Kaia just knows that she misses her vegetables and especially her Asian greens, so she physically will stuff her mouth with the greens after I’ve plopped them onto her plate. This is a pattern she’s exhibited since she was very young. But this time after coming home from a trip, she wasn’t really vegetable deprived. I think she had a good share of vegetables across the last two weeks away. Yet still, she quickly gobbled up her roasted bell peppers and blanched bok choy at dinner.

I think the U.S. could learn a lot from other countries around the world about a lot of things. But specifically from these four Caribbean nations, the U.S. can learn to stop having menus with mains that are just a single thing (e.g. pasta, steak, a quarter of a roasted chicken) without also including vegetable sides — and have that be included in the freaking price. Stop up-charging for vegetables and just have them built into the main price!

Day trip via ferry to Tobago; reflecting on cultural differences with respect to “dinner”

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We woke up at 4am to catch a 6:30am ferry from Trinidad to Tobago today. The ferry ride is approximately three hours, and with a scheduled 4pm ferry ride back to Trinidad, we really only had about 4.5 hours on the quiet island of Tobago before going back. Chris figured that since we were already in this part of the world that we might as well just go since we were already here. Unfortunately for Chris, no Marriott hotels are currently on Tobago, as the hotels I could see during our time there and on the map all look to be local/independent places. Despite our time being short there, it was nice to have some beach time at the beach there, with its teeny tiny waves, extremely clear, turquoise waters, and tiny little silver fish swimming around at less than waist-level deep water. We decided to base ourselves at Store Bay Beach rather than Pigeon Point Heritage Park because we wanted more local food with a local feel. Store Bay has a a cluster of tiny buildings selling full meals, juices, snacks, ice cream, and clothing, whereas Pigeon Point, which requires an entry fee, is more resort-like and manicured as such. At Store Bay, we sat down and ate a small meal of blue crab curry and dumplings with provisions and some fried shark. The blue crabs were predictably teeny tiny and very not satisfying given it was so much work to get the little meat, but it was still fun to have the experience of eating the local dish here that Tobago is known for.

While on the beach, we paid a local vendor for some lounging chairs and an umbrella. The vendor was so nice that he took a quick drive back to his house and picked us some chenet fruit, also known to us as mamoncillo that we had while in Colombia and El Salvador. These were by far the sweetest of the three times we’ve enjoyed this tropical fruit; both other times, it was more sour-sweet. These were so sweet that they were like fruit candy! This time, Kaia was old enough to handle sucking around the big round gum-ball like pit (major potential choking hazard for littles!), and she got to try one. She didn’t seem to enjoy it too much, though; I think she thought it was too much sucking for very little reward… which is kind of true with this fruit, especially since you have to pick the thin skin off it before sucking the gelatinous pink flesh off the pit.

We arrived back in Port of Spain just after 7pm, and I was going through my list of restaurants on my map when I realized that pretty much none of them served dinner; every place I bookmarked was for breakfast or lunch. And then it dawned on me that Trinidad likely doesn’t really have much “going out” dinner culture, as most of the iconic Trini foods are daytime foods, like doubles, roti, bake, aloo pie, roti shop curries, macaroni pie. Doubles is usually a breakfast/early day food, but as we saw our first full day, it can also appear later at night after partying, when people set up their trucks and sell it on the street. There was one Trini fusion dinner place that Claude recommended when I was doing research, but unfortunately that place has since closed down. So we figured that in Trini culture, “sit down restaurant dinners” aren’t really a thing. It’s an interesting thing to think about when traveling — the cultural differences across the world with dining practices and times. In Trinidad, a sit-down dinner in general isn’t really part of the social rhythm. But then if you are in places like Argentina, Chile, or Spain, an 8pm dinner is considered too early, and some places may not even be open for food!

When there are restaurants open in Port of Spain, they tend to skew more “restaurant/bar” rather than traditional Trini. Or, they are not Trini restaurants. So it’s common to see French, Italian, Japanese, or Chinese restaurants open for dinner. But if a restaurant has Trini food, it’s usually just part of the menu (that is quite eclectic with other options like wings, tacos, etc.), and also has a big bar scene. So we ended up back on Ariapita Avenue and chose a casual bar-type spot called Wing It, where we had some grilled fish and jerk chicken alongside some drinks. It was quite loud and boisterous in there, with a World Cup match on the big TVs and lots of loud soca music. This was Kaia’s first “night out” on the town — at age 4.5! She seemed to love the vibe overall despite it being quite loud for her little ears.

And just like that, our Caribbean island hopping trip is coming to an end. I can’t remember ever having this much tropical fruit, crazy mango variety, sun, and beach time in a single trip before this! I could get used to this!

Trini mango varieties at a wholesale market and the most delicious “buss up shut” roti of my life in Port of Spain

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After chatting with our smoothie guy about Central Market and Chinatown as being the best places to get local fruit, we made our way to Central Market this morning. It’s a wholesale market that runs late at night, with peak times being around 11pm, then again at around 4am. These are not times I would ever be at any market, so when we went this late morning, it unfortunately was not surprising to see that a lot of vendors were sold out or already gone for the day. However, we did find vendors selling some mango varieties that we had not tried yet, and did not even know about. We sought out and got five starch mangoes for $20TTD, and we also picked up some mango vert (vert means “green” in French, but these are actually yellowish green). The teeny tiny mangoes that were next to the mango vert were “dodo” mangoes, named because of how small they are; four can comfortably sit in the palm of your hand! They are very sugary sweet mangoes that are considered “snacking mangoes” here given their size. Each mango can yield about four small bites before you hit the pit. Of all the mango varieties, this was likely the most one-dimensional tasting one — just straight forward sweet with zero complexity. I would not get those again.

And where there is a wholesale market, there must be ready made/made to order food. So we popped into the indoor area where vendors had different stalls. Most were closed, but a couple were open, including one that had a promising “fish broth” sign. Given fish is part of the market, we thought this could be really good. The older lady operating it said she’d add a fish steak to my soup, so she asked me to give her some time. When she presented the massive bowl with the fish steak on top, I couldn’t believe how massive it was. Good thing this was going to be shared among three of us! The vendor called the fish salmon, but it actually wasn’t salmon: it was a white sea trout. In Trinidad, as I later learned, people refer to sea trout as salmon, but I’m unclear why. It was very flaky, meaty, and lean. The fish broth was really rich, likely made with endless fish bones!

Our next stop was at Dobson’s Roti Shop, which is a popular institution amongst locals and tourists alike in Port of Spain. Our driver for the Caroni Bird Sanctuary told us it was her favorite roti shop. So while you may be familiar with Indian roti, Trinidadian roti is slightly different. Trini roti is also referred to as “buss up shut” roti, derived from their accent when they say “busted up shirt” (this really makes me chuckle), a paratha that is super soft, flaky, and endlessly layered. The name is perfect to describe its appearance because while cooking the roti on the tawa, it is “crushed” and beaten a few times with metal spoons/spatulas to separate its delicate layers. So in the end, it really does resemble a “busted up” shirt! This roti was originally brought to the Caribbean by East Indian indentured laborers, and is known as one of the THE foods representing the multi-ethnic culture of Trinidad and Tobago. Like in India, this roti is used as an edible utensil to sop up gravies, stews, and curries.

We got to the roti shop just ahead of prime lunch hour, so we ordered a beef curry roti with no line. The roti came hot and steaming, wrapped in foil, alongside a big styrofoam takeout container which included a huge portion of curry beef, mashed spiced savory pumpkin, chickpea curry, and a very thick mango chutney, complete with its skins and all. When I unwrapped the roti, I knew it was going to be good: it was this HUGE piece of paratha, with layers that basically draped and fell all over the place. Kaia was obsessed and kept reaching for more roti between bites of beef and channa. I’m honestly not sure what I liked more: the doubles from the previous night or this insanely delicious roti! Roti was definitely meant to be taken away or eaten on the go, as we had the only two seats at the one tiny table in the front. But we were thrilled to see they had a tiny little sink with soap for us; roti is meant to be eaten with your hands – definitely not a fork and knife situation!

After lunch, we stopped at a nearby shop for some ice cream and got soursop and peanut flavor. Peanut flavored things are huge here: you can see lots of shops selling chocolate candy bars with whole peanuts, peanut punch (peanut butter, whey protein, milk, and sugar!), and peanut desserts like this one. Of course, soursop is huge here. The soursop ice cream was very good — the cream and sugar rounded out some of the “oil spill” flavor I tend to get when I have soursop straight as a fruit, which makes me a bit wary of having it as fresh fruit. Since soursop has a high concentration of natural sugars, when the fruit becomes overripe or sits too long at room temperature, wild yeasts on the skin can break down these sugars. This process produces ethanol and other alcohol byproducts. So, in concentrated amounts, this chemical fermentation smells and tastes intensely sharp, similar to turpentine, gasoline, or nail polish remover. This is the flavor I unfortunately get frequently when trying fresh soursop fruit!

We have to wake up for a 6:30am ferry to go to Tobago on a day trip tomorrow, so our dinner tonight ended up just being a bunch of the mangoes we got at the market, along with the cutlass mangoes gifted to us. Kaia loved the mango vert and the starch. “I WANT VERT! I WANT VERT!” she kept yelling. I love seeing her get into all the Caribbean mangoes here, especially after she refused to try a single mango variety our entire time in India together just three years ago. It was a very delicious day in Port of Spain, for sure.

Last stop on our Caribbean island-hopping summer trip: Trinidad & Tobago

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Before this trip, I knew very little about Trinidad & Tobago. In the pandemic year of 2020, Chris and I started exploring more neighborhoods across the five boroughs of New York City. Since we were blocked from traveling internationally, we figured that given the unique diversity of our city of residence, we could go to different neighborhoods and still get exposed to different cultures; that would be our “international travel” within our own city. During that year, we visited a Trinidadian roti shop in Crown Heights, and my eating life changed forever: I had one taste of doubles, a beloved street food of Trinidad and Tobago, and it was like love at first bite. Doubles are two small, quickly fried little chewy flatbreads (baras) served with a hearty, savory, spiced filling of curried chickpeas (channa), oftentimes topped with different types of chutneys and a hot pepper sauce. Sometimes, shops give the option of adding different curried meats, like chicken, beef, or goat, to your doubles for an extra charge. The filling is wrapped with two little baras (hence the name “doubles), and you eat it like a mini sandwich/tiny burrito. They are usually filled to order, then wrapped and twisted up with a piece of paper and handed over to you; they are best eaten AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. At that point in time, of course I’d eaten lots of different Indian foods, but this curried chickpea mix, coupled with the two little fluffy baras, was just different to me, and I couldn’t quite pinpoint why. The spice blend of the channa was not the same as what I’d had before. The chewiness and pillowy texture of the bara was incredibly addictive. And from that one experience, I knew if given the option, I could eat doubles every single day and be happy!

The second exposure I got to “Trini” culture was via my two night nurses. I got a reference through a parents group for my first night nurse, Cheryl, who happened to be Trinidadian. Since she spent a lot of time at our place, we talked a lot about how she grew up, her culture, and food. She talked a lot about the Indian influence on Trini culture and cuisine. She also told us about areas of Queens and Brooklyn to check out for Trini food and shops. Once, Cheryl brought us a bag of pickled, spiced pommecythere, also known as June plum or golden apple. I remember it being a really addictive combination of sweet, sour, salty, and a little spicy; the crunch was also delicious! She also told us about the whole network of Trini night nurses across the U.S. and how interconnected they are. When her time was up with us, she introduced us to a second Trini night nurse, who may have taken even better care of Kaia than she did!

So the little I was exposed to Trini culture before this trip was enough to get me to this presumption: I knew of the four islands we’d visit — Barbados, St. Lucia, Grenada, and Trinidad & Tobago, that T&T would very likely be my most favorite place to eat on this trip. And after just a day here, I am willing to bet that assumption will not be wrong!

I guess when I think of Trinidad & Tobago, I think more about Trinidad than I do of Tobago, which is not entirely my own fault. Trinidad & Tobago as a single country has two names because it was formed by joining two completely separate islands. Trinidad is the larger, main island (hence why I always think about its culture and influence first). Even though it’s a Caribbean island, Trinidad feels more urban, multicultural, diverse, and commercial. Tobago is the smaller island that was, at least historically, economically weaker, but more village-centered, tied to fishing, folk traditions, harvest festivals, and a slower-paced island identity. Tobago has a more rural, Afro-Caribbean vibe.

This is a pretty good quick outline I found of the ethnic and religious diversity of Trinidad and Tobago, one of the Caribbean’s most culturally mixed islands: Its culture blends:

African heritage from slavery and emancipation, visible in Carnival, calypso, steelpan, stickfighting, Spiritual Baptist traditions, drumming, and foodways.

Indian heritage from indentureship, visible in roti, doubles, curry, choka, tassa, chutney, Hindu and Muslim festivals, and family/community traditions.

European colonial influences, especially Spanish, British, and French Creole, visible in place names, Catholic traditions, architecture, Carnival history, and social structures.

Chinese, Syrian/Lebanese, Portuguese, and Venezuelan/Latin American influences also shaped food, commerce, music, and migration patterns.

If you have that many cultures in a single place, the food is destined to be good.

For our meals thus far, for lunch today we ate at an open-air food center along Ariapita Avenue, a main drag for restaurants, bars, and nightlife. We had a steamed kingfish plate, a garlic shrimp plate, and all came with a mix of vegetables, coleslaw, coconut rice, and mashed potato. The garlic shrimp was perfectly cooked (Kaia was obsessed with it!), and the kingfish was well seasoned and had a little bit of house made green pepper sauce that had a fruity forward flavor with a tiny, tingly burn at the end.

Today, we did a sunset tour of Caroni Bird Sanctuary, which is supposed to be the number one tourist experience here in Trinidad. On our boat that went through swamps and marshes, we were able to see a snake, anteater, and some other indigenous animals in their sleepy state. And for the main highlight, we saw countless North American flamingos (“Americans!” Chris grumbled) as well as the national bird of Trinidad and Tobago: the scarlet ibis, hoards of them all flying high in the air and settling upon a specific little island in the marshes. The scarlet ibis is a huge bird with a large wingspan, long neck, and a nearly fluorescent, bright orangish-red hue. Originally, Chris was not very enthused at the idea of going on a bird watching boat tour (“What is this? Some overpriced tourist trap where I have to see a bunch of birds I don’t care about instead of actually getting to eat them?!)” But when he finally caved in and booked the tour for us (THIS MORNING for this late afternoon!) and we went out on the 2.5-hour boat tour, he actually seemed to enjoy it. He marveled at the dozens of flamingos we saw in their natural habitat, saying that this was, “like something you’d see on the Discovery Channel” but instead we were seeing it ourselves in real life. And he even seemed to get excited when he saw his first red ibises flying high in the air. Who would have thought that my very own Chris could have his own “birding” moments?

I thought Kaia would enjoy the boat tour more, but she actually got bored after a while and kept asking when we were going to go back. She was likely getting hungry and tired, as the boat tour ended at 6:30, and on her usual schedule, she would have eaten by this time. While she did enjoy seeing the many flamingos and scarlet ibises, as well as the catfish in the water, we couldn’t hold her attention span the full 2.5 hours. We had many moments of moaning, whining, and crying. I guess she really is a 4.5-year-old after all…

Our tour included pickup and drop-off, so we asked our driver to take us back to Ariapita Avenue, the main food and bar drag, so we could grab a quick bite before heading back to the hotel. While on the avenue, she pointed out a doubles truck parked and set up with a small line forming and asked if we’d be interested in stopping there. I saw the doubles sign, the truck setup, and the little crowd forming, and I knew this was exactly what we wanted… and needed! So we got out and ordered four “regular” doubles (channa/chickpeas), two chicken, and two goat (the last two with pepper sauce). The total for eight doubles was only 70 TTD, about $10.32 USD — a bargain for our takeout dinner for three! We picked up some drinks from a little market and headed back to the hotel to eat. And this dinner was what dreams are made of: everything was just as good, if not better, than the doubles we’d had in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. The paras were fluffy, pillowy, and addictive. The channa was spiced and super savory. The goat and chicken were tender, well seasoned, and had a nice little kick with the pepper sauce. This was the best first dinner in Trinidad!

And for our dessert, we washed and cut cutlass mangoes, a local variety of mango, that we got along Ariapita Avenue this morning — for free! A really warm, friendly man who owns a smoothie shop saw us admiring the hanging fruit in front of his shop, and so he took a red-netted bag of five cutlass mangoes and just handed them to us as a gift, and thanked us for visiting his country! We ended up sitting on his little deck for a while, chatting with him, and bought a smoothie he made for us to order — cutlass mangoes, watermelon, and dragonfruit. Kaia loved the fact that both of us were distracted chatting with the owner, so she likely got more sips of this smoothie than any other fresh juice/smoothie we’ve ever ordered! She kept chuckling her little cheeky laugh when she knows she’s doing something she’s not really supposed to…

As for the cutlass mango, a variety we’d never heard of before, it is a long, flat, fiberless mango that originates from Trinidad and Tobago. It is distinctive in appearance because it is curved with two pointy tips. The three we cut were perfectly ripe: sweet, tropical, a tiny bit tart, and extremely juicy. I squirted juice in few directions just cutting into these mangoes! The flesh is fiberless, smooth, and almost melts in your mouth. On this trip, this is now the FIFTH mango variety we’ve tried!

The kindness and hospitality we’ve experienced during our short time in Port of Spain have really exceeded any expectations I may have had. The smoothie guy was extremely warm and generous — we got FIVE free mangoes because of him — all because we told him we love mangoes and trying new ones. A ride-app driver who took us to a coffee shop this morning couldn’t find the Michi Coffee Shop where he was supposed to drop us off, so he not only wouldn’t let us get out of the car until he was certain we knew were going, but he even called his coffee loving sister to make sure this area really had a coffee shop around it (to his credit, the coffee shop was a little weird and hidden, as it was in the midst of insurance, furniture, and car repair stores). The lunch spot at the food center had a server who proactively gave me tips about food and local juices since I asked about fruit. And our driver to and from the bird sanctuary gave us tips about local food spots we should check out.

This segment of our Caribbean trip has felt the most interactive with local people and day to day life, as I imagined it would be. But it’s been even better and more enjoyable and fun than I had hoped!

Off to the St. George Spice Market, The Carenage, and De La Grenade Nutmeg Garden

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Of the four island countries we are visiting on this trip, I knew the very least about Grenada before this was all booked. And lo and behold, Grenada seems like the most expensive of the four, at least from a tourist transportation standpoint. Many fixed tours/plans are done by the hotel, but they run only on certain days and also require a minimum number of people (usually 8-10) to run. Given we’re in low season, on many days of the week, the tours do not run at all if there is a lack of demand/interest. So the original underwater sculpture snorkel excursion I wanted to do would not run due to a total of zero other people wanting to come. So when I asked the excursions specialist about spice garden tours/farms, she said that their specific fixed tour including several spots on my list would not be running Monday, as in today, our last full day. But, she said, we had the option of spending $375 for a private driver for up to eight hours; that’s a LOT of money! Like in St. Lucia, distances are very deceiving because the actual drive time can be quite long due to road conditions and congestion. Most of Grenada’s major national parks, waterfalls, and larger spice gardens/farms are at least 45 minutes to 1.5 hours away from us. So we had to construct our own Spice Isle excursion today, centered on local spices, foods, and culture and rely on the local ride app.

Our first stop was at St. George Spice Market. No cruise ships were scheduled to arrive in St. George today, so we were lucky and got to experience Monday morning calm at the market. I also read that vendors typically increase prices when cruise ships dock, and they don’t do this otherwise. Either way, I had a ballpark in my head of how much each spice I was interested in should be, so I’d know whether someone was trying to rip me off.

I didn’t have to worry much, though, in terms of vendor interaction. All the vendors I interacted with at the spice market were quite warm and friendly. Some let me haggle a little with them. All of them asked me questions about me, Kaia, how long our trip would be. One of them even kept a close eye on Kaia and kept letting me know where she was hiding, as she predictably ran amok through the aisles of the enclosed section of the spice market. While there, I picked up some spices I had on my shortlist that Grenada is known for, including the obvious, which was whole nutmeg, whole nutmeg wrapped in mace, black peppercorns, dried Grenadian bay leaves (which are actually distinct from the typical Mediterranean bay laurel; it’s more aromatic and complex, offering notes of allspice, menthol, cinnamon, and even citrus!), and ceylon cinnamon (real cinnamon, which is rare, as most places that grow or sell “cinnamon” are really using cassia, which has a stronger, pungent, spicier taste). Ceylon cinnamon is rare, as the majority is grown in Sri Lanka (hence its name given Sri Lanka was a former British colony), with small amounts grown in places like Madagascar, The Seychelles, and the West Indies (this includes Grenada!). So it was interesting to be able to find it at this market. I also did a subtle “test” to see if the cinnamon really was cinnamon by gently pushing down on the sticks to see if they would break. Real Ceylon cinnamon should break, whereas cassia pretending to be cinnamon will be really hard to break.

We also found several vendors selling mangoes, which was also my list of things to find and eat here. We picked out four ripe Ceylon mangoes (also originally from Sri Lanka, brought over by British colonizers from there), the only variety that this one vendor had. I was thrilled to try mango varietal number FOUR on this trip now. Ceylon mangoes are known for their smooth, stringless flesh, and intense, sweet flavor. Some locals even find the mango too sweet, so they will balance the flavor by squeezing fresh lime juice over the flesh while eating. We got four ripe Ceylon mangoes for 5 XCD/$1.85 USD, which to me is quite a good deal!

After we left the market, we had a chocolate tasting at House of Chocolate, bought a bunch of chocolate as gifts and our own at-home eating pleasures, and walked the Carenage, which is the historic horseshoe-shaped natural harbor right in the center of St. George, the capital of Grenada. The Carenage is extremely picturesque, with a large promenade and a working port. There are many brightly colored 18th century colonial buildings with lots of red-tiled roofs. It all looked like the perfect postcard to market Grenada. The promenade, staying true to the Spice Isle nickname of Grenada, is even lined with hanging metal renditions of painted split nutmegs, complete with red mace enveloping them.

We had a quick lunch spot at a local open-air restaurant and then made our final stop of the afternoon, which was at De La Grenade Nutmeg Garden, where we did a private tour of the gardens high up in the hills (benefits of low season!) and got to see and learn a lot about so many varieties of fruit and spices. In preparation for this trip, I had read that nutmeg syrup was very popular here, But to be honest, that did not excite me too much because all I could think of was how potent nutmeg (the seed) was as a spice; a tiny bit goes a really long way. What I didn’t realize before coming on this tour is that when nutmeg syrup is made, the nutmeg’s fleshy outer fruit, known as the pericarp, is used for the syrup, which is much subtler and almost fruity in flavor. The whole idea here is to have zero waste and to use as much of the fruit as possible.

This is a description of how the nutmeg fruit anatomy breaks down by part:

  • The Pericarp: The soft, fleshy outer fruit –> This is what is used for local nutmeg syrup.
  • The Mace: The bright red, lacy, web-like membrane (or aril) that covers the shell.
  • The Shell (Endocarp): The hard, dark seed coat underneath the mace.
  • The Nutmeg: The actual seed inside the shell. –> This needs to be cracked and grated to make the nutmeg ground spice as we know it.

After the garden tour, we did a tasting of every product they offer, ranging from the nutmeg syrups, jellies, and jams, to pepper jellies, hot sauces, rum punches, and local Grenadian liqueur. And one of the most unusual things we tasted was something I’d seen at the market stalls back in Barbados but wasn’t so sure how it would taste: sea moss. It usually appears pink or yellow and is sold dry by the weight. The description for sea moss said that it was high in minerals, like iodine, magnesium, and calcium; helps hydrate the skin and promotes natural glow, and even strengthens hair and nails. It is usually consumed by being blended into flavorless gel that thickens smoothies, teas, and desserts. Our tasting guide served the sea moss for us with a drizzle of nutmeg syrup. It was thick, gelatinous, and a very different experience; I could actually taste bits of the ocean in it! Since it had nutmeg syrup on it, Kaia was quite happy to eat her sample up quickly!

We ended up buying the nutmeg jam, rum punch, and Grenadian liqueur. When planning this trip, I had a feeling that if there was one place we’d bring home souvenirs or consumable goods from that it would be Grenada given its reputation. And it looks like that feeling was right. We had a really well spent, enjoyable day without a private driver, and learned a lot about global food versus what we’d known before. I love learning these bits about food and the world when we travel — we’re still always learning.

Castries Market: THE MANGO VARIETIES and the big fruit haul back to Rodney Bay

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I’ll be honest and say that I was disappointed with the Cheapside Market in Bridgetown, Barbados, we visited on our first full day. I was hoping to see lots of different vendors selling specialized fruit and vegetables, but in the end, almost every vendor was selling the exact same spread. No one specialized in a handful of fruits or vegetables seemingly. A lot of the vegetables were wilted or rotting so badly that I wondered how they sold anything to anyone; would they even use these produce that looked so limp? And almost none of them sold any interesting fruit. Maybe three sold the same type of mango (mango longue). So when I read about Castries Market here in the capital of St. Lucia, Castries, it sounded like it would be what I was hoping for: a market with rows and rows of vendors specializing in very specific fruits and vegetables. As soon as we arrived this morning at the market, I knew I was going to be happy. The spreads were quite elaborate and extremely fresh: lots of dasheen (taro!) and root vegetables sold by one vendor, greens (lots of callaloo) by another, mangoes, papayas, and related tropical fruits by another. I knew for sure I’d find the right vendor to get me all I was thinking about and more: multiple varieties of mango, passion fruit, and if we got lucky, guava. And if I could find a new fruit to obsess over, my mind and belly were open to it.

So we stumbled upon one vendor who looked like she had everything we could possibly ask for: three varieties of mango (Julie, Graham, and Mango Longue), starfruit (a surprise for Kaia, as I knew she’d get a kick from seeing fruit in a perfect star shape), passion fruit, and multiple varieties of tropical bananas. And all the fruit were organized by ripeness. She had a large tray at the front of her stand where all the ripe, ready-to-eat-today fruits were grouped together by type. All the fruit that needed time to ripen before eating were in huge piles in the back. So, I kind of went to town on her fruit, but in piecemeal because I was so overwhelmed by the variety that I would miss something else she had that we would like. We bought four Julie mangoes, three fat Graham mangoes, one mango longue, one starfruit, two small red bananas, and seven fat, heavy passion fruit. We SCORED BIG at this market today!! This place was definitely my vibe and the produce market I was dreaming about experiencing while in the Caribbean.

Here are the Castries Market prices for our incredibly happy fruit haul (which we hope made our fruit vendor very happy that she got an unexpectedly big sale from us!):

Julie mangoes: four for 3 XCD

Graham mangoes: three for 4 XCD

One mango longue for 1.25 XCD

One starfruit for 2 XCD

Seven FAT, heavy passion fruit for 10 XCD

Two mini red bananas for 2 XCD

So in total for a very heavy load of the most beautiful, delicious fruit on earth (and with special gratitude to my fuzzball for carrying this very heavy load for a while all over town!), we spent $22.25 XCD, or about $8.23 USD. If that is what heaven costs, then heaven here is quite a good bargain!!

We had a very juicy, custardy, desserty evening with our mangoes and passion fruit tonight. I was so, so full after dinner and about half this fruit (the other half is being saved for our last day tomorrow before we leave!), but all of us were glowing from how complex and delicious these mangoes were. I can’t believe it took us this long to try the fruit from this part of the world. The closest mangoes we’ve had to this region before this trip have been from Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Kaia especially loves the Graham mango and kept going crazy for more bites of it. This is how I know she will embrace food: she names the exact varietal she loves!

“I want the Graham! I WANT THE GRAHAM!” Kaia kept shouting excitedly as I hurried to slice yet another chunk of mango off the skin for her to eat.

And we all know Chris really, really embraced these mangoes because for the first time in my entire life, he actually started using his teeth to take every last bit of mango flesh off the inside of the skin. “You leave too much on the skin otherwise,” he insisted, as he continued his toothy mango eating. Usually in the U.S., I peel the ataulfos or Kents we get, but this was true dedication on his part!

Here is a description of each of the three mango varieties for drooling purposes only:

Julie mango: This is the mango that was talked up by people we spoke with in Barbados and here. It’s the famous “Caribbean favorite” mango, usually more on the small side, a little flat/oblong, and like a lopsided oval. The skin color changes but can be green-yellow to yellow-orange-red. The flesh is deep yellow to deep orange and the flavor is creamy, juicy, extremely fragrant, floral, tropical, and very tangy.


Graham mango: Chris’s mango palate is quite discerning, as when we cut the mangoes this evening, he immediately said that the Graham was the “partying version of the Julie.” He was right in that Graham is actually a Julie seedling from Trinidad, so the two are related. But these Grahams are significantly larger and more rounded and oval than a Julie. It ripens to be a deep orange/yellow with some pink/red. The flesh is rich, aromatic, sweet, dessert like. The flavor is multi-noted. A description I read about Graham said that it can be considered “Julie’s larger, slightly more robust cousin: still fragrant and dessert-like, but often less sharply tangy/floral than the best Julies.”

Mango longue/ Mango long: We first had two of these in Barbados. These are small, elongated, narrow, and have a citrusy, sweet-tart flavor, and are extremely fibrous. They are juicy, so juicy that the juices will run down your arms when eating them at their peak!  

In addition to all this fruit we hauled back (on Chris’s shoulder), at Castries Market, we also tried “cherry” juice, or acerola fruit juice, which was orange in color and a lot more citrusy than the bing cherries we are used to in the U.S.. We also bought and shared a golden apple ice pop. Golden apple is also known as a June plum or pommecythere; it looks nothing like any apple you’d find in the U.S. and looks more like a plumcot. It tastes like a mix of apple, mango, pineapple, with a citrusy finish. Both treats were delicious and added to our list of new fruits and varietals we’ve enjoyed on this trip!

Now I know that even if I don’t see the best produce markets on the Grenada or Trinidad legs of our trip that my heart and belly have been satiated with fresh, local, tropical fruit here in St. Lucia. And now when I think about it, why would you choose to come here when it’s NOT mango season…?!! What a true loss that would be!

Soufriere, St. Lucia, and its treasure: Les Pitons

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I told a colleague originally from St. Lucia that we would be visiting his birthplace, and he said that the one thing he recommended we had to do was to visit Soufriere, a town on the southwest coast of St. Lucia. Soufriere, which has strong French-Creole heritage, is near the famous Pitons, Gros Pitons and Petit Piton, the twin volcanic peaks that appear in almost every St. Lucia tourism ad. The name “Soufriere” comes from French and is named as such for the area’s sulfurous volcanic landscape. “Les Pitons” in French means “mountain peaks” or “pegs.” In English, they are another word for “metal spikes.” Given that St. Lucia changed hands between the British and the French 14 times, seven times to each side, ending with the Brits, you can easily see the British and French influence here. Because of this turbulent colonial tug-of-war, St. Lucia earned the nickname “Helen of the West Indies.” The French influence clearly persists in the island country given the naming of places like Les Pitons and Soufriere itself. But alas, while “Soufriere” pronounced the proper French way would be said “Su-free-AIR,” the British (and lazier) pronunciation of “Su-FRAIR” is more widely said by locals.

So today, we hired a driver to take us down the twisty, windy “hair pin bendy” roads to Soufriere. Everywhere we went, there were mango trees upon mango trees upon MORE mango trees. I just couldn’t get over how many mango trees there were everywhere. I’d never been any place quite like this before! It seemed like they just grew out in the wild and no one person even owned a lot of these trees. Some are so tall and gigantic that you’d never even be able to reach even a tiny fraction of the fruit available! And when there weren’t mango trees, there were bread fruit trees, more bread fruit trees, and endless other fruits like papaya, gooseberry, guavas, wax apples, and the list just goes on forever!

Along the way, we stopped at some really well staked out viewing points of the Pitons and Anse La Ray (Bay of Stingrays), had some delicious local tastes of hand-pounded cassava bread (cherry-raisin and pineapple, the latter of which Chris declared “tastes just like a hot cross bun without the raisins!”), also visited Toraille Waterfall (overrun by cruise ship tourists and was our first time really feeling like we were surrounded by other tourists this trip!), and did a quick tour of the Sulphur Springs. It’s described as the Caribbean’s only “drive-in volcano,” but that’s a little bit of an exaggeration. You can drive up to the edge of the area, and then you have to get out and walk around it. You are also assigned to a guide… who expects a tip at the end (damn U.S. tipping culture invading other societies!). When doing the tour here, of course the smell of rotten eggs was pervasive. As soon as we got out of the car, Kaia yelled out, “It smells!” The area also had lots of fruit trees, including a fruiting mango tree and a fruiting cashew tree. I’d imagine these trees’ fruit would be especially delicious!

For lunch with the help of ChatGPT premium and my targeted prompting, we went to Martha’s Tables just off Sugar Beach in Soufriere, a little quaint open-air restaurant that feels like you are eating on a huge deck of someone’s private home. They had a large, lush backyard filled with so many types of fruits and vegetables that I couldn’t even name them all. When we complimented our server and said we loved the garden (which we have to walk through to reach the restrooms), she went into the kitchen to tell the chef (maybe Martha?), and the chef came out eagerly to give us a mini tour of her garden, filled with guavas, pomegranates, golden apples (also known as June plums), wax apples, and so may pineapple bushes! None of the fruit were ready for picking except the wax apples, so the chef picked off a large bunch of the wax apples, and to my surprise, gave them all to Kaia! Kaia was ecstatic; she kept squealing nonstop every time she came across yet another pineapple bush! The meal and setting were amazing, but this level of warmth and hospitality was truly above and beyond. We left feeling very welcomed and taken care of.

Our next and final stop before heading back up to Rodney Bay was at the Tet Paul Nature Trail, where we’d go for a hike to see more views of the Pitons. The trail was originally developed as a community tourism/eco-tourism project, run and managed by the people of the town just below. Our kind and friendly driver ended up having to watch Kaia nap in the car because she passed out on our drive to the Nature Trail. This ended up benefiting us because if she had come, she would have whined endlessly about the uphill climb and how long it was (45 minutes isn’t that long, but for a four-year-old, that feels like an eternity without sitting…!).

The most interesting thing about this trail was that the entire time, it felt like I was in an open-air compost pile because of all the fallen, rotted fruit (mostly mangoes!) that were everywhere. There was so much fruit, too much fruit, that no one could ever keep up with all this. While the smell stunned me a little in the beginning, after a while, it actually just felt nice, like we were truly immersed in nature. And along with all the beautiful bird songs, it felt very special. The trail also had many other fruit, like the locally beloved wax apples and bread fruit. And we got really lucky when we saw not one, but two different Antillean crested hummingbirds. I have loved birds since I was little, likely due to the influence of my dad who loves birds, and whenever I see a new, colorful species out in the wild, I always get excited. These little hummingbirds are a stunning blue and green irridescent shade with some black, and most notably have a funny tuff of “hair” on their heads. The hair almost looks like a bumpy mohawk! One of them posed for us for what seemed like a very long time, and our guide (as with the volcano, a guide was required here) noted that it is actually very rare to see these hummingbirds; often he will go weeks with multiple tours and not see any. So the fact that we got to see two was very, very special.

When we finally reached the pinnacle of the trail, known as the “Stairway to Heaven,” we got to see the sweeping views of the Gros Piton et Petit Piton we had originally come for. We also got to see different angles of Sugar Beach, Jalousie Bay, and the south coast. After this hike and all the spectacular views we saw today, I can understand why people love St. Lucia and think it’s one of the most beautiful places in the world. Some people like mountains, while others prefer the beach and ocean. And for those who don’t like either, they have rainforests. St. Lucia has it all — and in a single view point and region!

On the 1.75 hours drive back to our hotel, I still admired all the mango trees we passed by every other second. I know that soon, this will not be my view out the window, and so I want to soak it all up as much as possible. Mango. Trees. Everywhere. I was just floored. I will likely be thinking about this for months to come.

Mangoes from the Dominican Republic

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In the U.S., the majority of the mangoes we can get here are imported from Mexico. They are usually either the Kent or Ataulfo varieties. There are also a few varieties I’ve heard of that are grown in Florida, but they are not widely available depending on where in the country you are, and either way, Florida has never been impressive to me when it comes to fruit. For example, when people talk about Florida oranges (okay, the rare times they do), I always roll my eyes on the inside; I think we all are aware that California navel oranges in the U.S. are the best when it comes to pure flavor nuance and sweetness, both for eating and drinking!

Every year as March rolls around, Chris gets excited as a mango lover as Ataulfo mangoes become readily available. Whole Foods usually has large stocks of these small yellow mangoes, which we always have a large supply of at home, ripening while socially distanced at our window sill. Mangoes are always, always at our place from March through July. This is generally when the Ataulfo mango season is.

So when some friends came over on Saturday and brought us some Dominican Mingolo mangoes from a Dominican market near them in Brooklyn, I was intrigued. These were larger, fatter, and heavier. The fragrance was evident as soon as you held one up to your nose. And they seemed quite ripe already! I cut them, and given they were so ripe, most were peeled and then disintegrated into some mango mush. While it isn’t as firm as Ataulfos, these Mingolos tasted a bit more tropical, more tart-sweet than Ataulfos, and were definitely far more juicy. I think they would be really good in desserts or just simple shakes with some added ice.

And the added bonus: once Ataulfos go out of season in July, Mingolos are supposedly still available (usually at Dominican markets across the city) until end of August! So if we are lucky and can source some from Dominican neighborhoods, we can still keep eating mangoes through the end of summer!