After being in Trinidad for over a year we somehow had never heard of the Queen’s Park Savannah Food Strip! A food focused night market in Port of Spain, you can taste just about every Trinidadian dish you can think of in one place.
We visited with the sole purpose of experiencing as many different Trinidadian dishes as we could. Our company for the evening was a local family we'd met in the shipyard who were happy explain what the different dishes were, and make recommendation for things they thought we'd like.
The Queen’s Park Savannah Food Strip
Before we go too far, let's start with some details.
Queen’s Park Savannah Food Strip is an open air market. There are about 30 vendors that predominantly sell Trinidadian cuisine, with a few stalls selling burgers, wings, desserts, local chocolate and non-food products.
The strip is located at the southern end of Queens Park Savannah and is open every day of the week, with Friday night being the best time to go. There's plenty of free parking onsite but a rideshare drive should have no problem finding the right spot.
Visiting the night market
We arrived at about 8pm and there was already a good crowd of people milling about. First we walked up and down the stalls, checking out what everyone had for sale. There was a huge range of popular Trinidadian foods with people making things like fresh roti bread right in front of you. After taking a look around we went back and bought a few different things to try, including rotis, pies and pork geera, with some fresh fruit juice to wash it down.
There's little to no seating at the night market so people were either standing up and eating, or had a picnic space set up on the grass. We saw people with camp chairs, blankets and tables set-up, so would do something like that if we went again. Kids were running around playing games on the grass and overall it had a friendly, family atmosphere.
Tasting Trinidadian street food
We tried as many different foods as we could but there were plenty more dishes we didn't get to! Here's a run down of the different types of Trinidadian street foods that were for sale the night we went.
Roti: A type of flatbread originating from India, roti is often served in Trinidad with curried vegetables and meat. The boneless meat rotis has already sold out by the time we got to the stall, so we tried the chicken roti with a curried potato and chickpea (channa) filling. It wasn't spicy but had lots of flavour. There's an option to "buss it up" which means the roti bread is beaten to shred it, creatin more surface area to soak up whatever curry you eat with it.
Doubles: This is a popular street food that consisting of two flat fried breads filled with curried chickpeas. It's usually topped with some sort of chutney, often tamarind and mango.
Callaloo Soup: Made using dasheen leaves, Callaloo soup is a nutritious and flavorful soup that's often eaten alongside other food, such as the Trini take on macaroni. It usually has okra, coconut milk, and crab or salted meats in it, and is seasoned with herbs and spices.
Bake and Shark: A popular beachside dish featuring deep-fried shark meat that's served in a fried dough (bake), Bake and Shark is often accompanied by various condiments like garlic sauce, tamarind sauce, and pepper sauce.
Crab and Dumplings: This was recommended to us, but by that point in the night we were too full! It consists of crab cooked in a rich and aromatic curry sauce that's served with simple dumplings made from flour, baking powder, and water, which are then boiled or fried.
Corn Soup: Around the world there are many cultures that make a corn soup and Trinidad is no exception. Their version is made with corn, vegetables, dumplings, and sometimes meat, such as chicken or pigtail. It's flavored with various herbs and spices including thyme, chives, and hot pepper.
Souse: Souse is one thing I couldn't do despite locals assuring me it tastes good. It's a dish made primarily from pickled meats, usually pig trotters or chicken feet, although other meats like beef are also used. The meat is typically boiled until tender, then marinated in a mixture of lime or lemon juice, water, onions, peppers, cucumbers, and sometimes additional spices like garlic and hot pepper.
Aloo Pie: Aloo pie is a popular Trinidadian street food made from a soft, fried dough filled with seasoned mashed potatoes. I really like it! The dough is typically made from flour, baking powder, salt, and water, formed into small rounds, and then filled with a spiced potato mixture, before being deep-fried until golden brown. At the Port of Spain night market we saw other versions of pies including a beef and cheese variant which Trent and our local friends really enjoyed!
Pig Tails: We did try the BBQ pig tails, and the flavour was pretty good. The pig tails are brined, coated in a sticky BBQ marinade then grilled on the open flame BBQ. They have very little meat on them as the tails are a very fatty part of the animal, but what was there was good.
Pholourie: Pholourie is a popular Trinidadian street food snack made from deep-fried balls of seasoned split pea flour batter. The fritters are often served with a tangy tamarind or mango chutney, and sometimes accompanied by a spicy dipping sauce.
Geera Pork: This tasty Trini dish features pork seasoned with a blend of spices including a healthy amount of roasted cumin seeds. This is where the name "geera" comes from, which is Trinidadian Creole for "cumin". Other spices often used in this dish are garlic, onion, thyme, pepper, and curry powder.
Is the Queen’s Park Savannah Food Strip worth visiting?
If you're a visitor who wants to experience as much Trinidadian street food as you can in a short amount of time then the Queen’s Park Savannah Food Strip is absolutely worth a visit, especially if you're staying in Chaguaramas on a yacht or in Port of Spain.
Want to try Trinidad street food recipes at home!
While in Trinidad I was gifted a copy of The Multicultural Cuisine of Trinidad and Trinidad and The Caribbean by Naparima Girls Highschool. The lady who gave it to me, Jocelyn, told me it's a book she was given by her mother and that she is turn gifted to her children when they grew up to give them a solid foundation for Trinidadian cooking.
I've since discovered it's incredibly popular in Trinidad with many households having a copy, and it's probably the best souvenir you could get. In Trinidad you can find it at the local bookstores while overseas you can buy a physical copy or Kindle version on Amazon.
This post features Amazon affiliate links. This means that, at zero cost to you, if you use the link to make your purchase we make a commission. It's just a simple and free way you can support the channel.
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