Tasting Trinidad, and how

Coconut Bake and Smoked Herring

We signed up to go on a "Taste of Trinidad" tour with Jesse James (his firm, Members Only, provides lots of support services to cruisers visiting Chaguaramas).  There were cruisers from six different boats, including us, and a total of 12 folks including us.  We have been hearing about the tour since we were in Trinidad last year, but this is the first time we have been able to go.  It's gotten amusingly competitive; Jesse and his customers are always trying to set a record for the number of foods (and beverages) consumeed in the course of the tour.  From our first dish - Coconut Bake and Smoked Herring, at 9:24 a.m.

Starfruit

to our last, Starfruit, around 8:12 p.m., we had a wonderful time wandering around Trinidad on our stomachs.  We sampled 59 foods and beverages and covered around 120 miles or so, starting in Chaguaramas, heading west and south through Valencia and Sangre Grande to the east coast at Manzanilla, then south to Mayaro and back west through Rio Claro, then northwest through Chaguanas and back to Port of Spain, then home to Chaguaramas again.  I'm not sure I can really name a single favorite food (least favorite of mine - and most of the 12 folks on the tour, I think) was a pickled pommecythere (a local apple-like fruit that might have been okay without the pickling) - but among the highlights were the smoked herring, barbecued pigtails (think seriously tasty, well "marbled" pork), a garlicky "patchoi" (a form of baby bok choy), and a green fig salad.  I would try to make any and all of these, along with a number of other things we sampled.  One nice thing about a tour like this is that it sends me searching for recipes.
Here's a slideshow with photos of one sort or another of most of the 59 foods - and yes, this was indeed a new record, though I am sure Jesse is already plotting how to break it on the next tour.  Of course, we will go again when we get back in the winter, so we will be sure to try to break whatever records get set in the meantime.