Some Of My Favourite Caribbean Dishes

So today, my mind was on food. I love to cook and try new things. Being from the Caribbean there are so many varieties of food to try. From sweet to spicy and even a combination of both. From the time you smell the local food, the aroma is just mouth watering, literally. Oh and the taste, it's just like a burst of flavours that you wont get over even after the second bite. Here are some of my favourite Caribbean dishes! Try not to get hungry. Enjoy!

 Bake and Shark. 

From the time you hear 'Maracas Bay', you automatically think bake and shark. It's highly associated with that part of Trinidad. It's basically a sandwich, we Trini's would refer to it as 'fried bake'. Yep, in other words it's like fried bread, just a bit heavier.                                     

They slice open the bake and put a piece of fried shark fillet in there. Now that's just bake and shark. There are many other things that are yet to go on to enhance the taste of that meal. You can add a few slices of tomatoes, some lettuce, some shredded cabbage, even some diced onions. That's your toppings. Then there are a variety of sauces that you can use as well. We have local pepper sauce(hot sauce), Tamarind sauce and a shadow benni sauce. If you ask me, honestly I'd say that this is the best sandwich I've ever had. 

           


Jamaican Beef Patty

The first time I had this I was just blown away by its taste and all the flavours. It's a flaky pastry shell, golden yellow in colour. The pastry shell is filled with ground beef and it's usually a bit spicy. Personally, the beef is my favourite. But it can also be filled with chicken, lamb, shrimp, vegetables, cheese, etc.



Saltfish Accra

Also known as saltfish fritters. The fish is shredded then seasoned and mixed into a flour based batter. It is then fried in deep oil. This is mainly an appetiser but believe me it's a totally delicious one. In the batter you can add diced onions, pimentos and chives just to enhanced to taste. It's crispy and the best time to serve is when it's warm.



Breadfruit Oil Down

For those of you who may not know what a Breadfruit is, this is it.
 
This is a one pot dish and you can cook it together with pigtail, fish, salt beef or saltfish. The main ingredients are breadfruit, seasonings (onions, thyme, pimentos, chives, celery etc), chopped dasheen leaves and coconut milk. It cooks in the coconut milk on slow heat where it simmers till the breadfruit becomes soft and tender.



Doubles

Doubles is a common Trinidadian street food. It can be eaten for breakfast, sometimes lunch and it's a great late night bite when you're out on the town. It's like a sandwich; made with bara and filled with curried channa or chick peas. Bara is a dough that is fried until it is golden brown in colour. It can be topped with cucumber chutney, coconut chutney, mango anchar or pepper sauce to give it that extra kick.



There are so many more that I'd like to include, but that'd be way too much now. I'll be posting the recipes for these dishes soon :)