| 6 Unique Treats |
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(Issue 4: July 2009) Tempt your taste buds at these LIAT destinations. By Judy Bastyra. 1 Trinidad There’s a huge variety of pickled and preserved fruit that Trinidadians eat, such as candies. You’ll find them on the way to Maracas Beach at the look- out point, a popular destination for families at the weekend, and on Lady Young Road, Port of Spain. The choice is immense: pepper strip mangoes, tamarind balls, sweet and pepper plums. The pickled half-ripe fruits (chow) include pommecythere (golden apple), mango and pineapple slices. These are preserved in salt, sugar, garlic, hot pepper and chandon beni. Unusual snacks but once you get the sweet sour taste they’re addictive. 2 Dominica Soused cow skin, locally called fwa sheen, is sold by the side of the road in plastic bags. This is certainly one of the more unusual snacks that you’ll find in Dominica. Check out the cafes in Roseau Market on a Saturday morning and you can enjoy all sorts of treats, roasted corn, plantain, but there’s nothing quite like some soused smoked pig snout to clear the head after a session of rum and dominoes. 3 Puerto Rico If you are not watching your waistline then you simply have to taste the Puerto Rican bacalaito, which is a huge salt cod fritter the size of a frisbee. You’ll find this deep-fried delicacy and many others at Pinones, east of San Juan. It’s a favourite destination for locals at the weekend, where there are what seems like miles of stalls along the beach road, selling a huge variety of fried foods, as well as other local dishes. 4 Barbados Saturday is the day that many Bajans look forward to. This is when you can buy freshly made pudding and souse. Souse is made from different parts of the pig, usually head, tail and feet, which is boiled then marinated in lime, hot pepper, parsley, onion, sweet pepper and cucumber. Pudding is the white kind not the meaty black pudding you find on other islands. It is made from grated sweet potato, onions, thyme and chives. A good place to try it is at the market in Bridgetown. 5 CuraÇao As with many of the more unusual Caribbean delicacies, iguana soup has the reputation of being an aphrodisiac. It tastes a lot like chicken, and to reassure the more conscientious diners iguanas are now being farmed. It’s not restricted to weekend availability but can be tried at Jaanchi’s Restaurant (Westpunt 15) or the Marsche Bieuw (the old market) in Willemstad, which has an amazing selection of local dishes. 6 Antigua There are many delicious dishes in Antigua, but there’s one the locals look forward to all week and that is fungi. You find it all over the island on weekends at roadside stalls. This Antiguan speciality is made from cornmeal (similar to the Italian polenta), which is seasoned, cooked and rolled into balls. It is generally served with salt cod stew (duckanoo) or another island favourite pepperpot – a thick vegetable stew with salted meat. |
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