Taste of Trini Tour - T3

The T3 gang - BA pic

T to the Power of Three is what our group nicknamed this famous tour.  It all started from a brief discussion with T3 veteran Bruce (s/v Wild Matilda) on what to take along on our tour.  He agreed a bottle of water was a must and also suggested that he was going to take a towel or small washcloth since we would basically be eating in the van the whole day.  I laughed and said "Too bad we don't have any of those bibs you get a seafood restaurants in the US."  Later Tom and I were talking and decided that bibs would be a great idea and T3 was born.  A few days passed, and I was in Port of Spain where I found a package of brightly colored wash clothes and some purple ribbon - instant bibs, no sewing needed.  I used a big Sharpie to apply the T3 and we were set for the big day.

Jesse James (Member's Only) in his T3 bib - BA pic

T3 is a world famous tour.  Local maxi and tour operator Jesse James hosts this tour himself, sharing his love and passion for his country by driving a van full of guests around the island all day tasting various foods and drinks.  Yes, you heard right.....this tour is basically cruising around the island for 12 hours eating, drinking and learning about Trinidad.  AWESOME!

Local stand selling rough skin lemons (rare) and other fresh fruits and veg - BA pic

But seriously, it's a terrific way to learn about the rich and diverse cultures that make up a country and specifically in this case, Trinidad.

Doubles stand for the doubles virgins

Our group consisted of 8 cruisers plus Jesse.  Bill and Sharon (s/v Casa Blanca - fellow Caliber 40 owners, woot woot), Chris and Margret (s/v Storm Bay - as Aussies, the international contingent), Steve (s/v Slow Flight), Bruce (s/v Wild Matilda -and as I mentioned before, veteran T3 having gone 4 times before on the tour on previous visits to Trinidad) and of course us. 

My T3 bib - BA pic

Jesse picked us up promptly at 9am and we surprised him and the other participants with the official T3 bibs.  Jesse loved it.  Inside disclosure - Jesse keeps his van immaculate and the thought of being the one to spill inside the van worried me.  The bibs were a form of self protection for me and the poor van!

Bhagi, smoked herring, fried aloo and roast bake - BA pic

So off we went.  But actually we drove 25 yards down the side of the road to a food stall outside Powerboat Boatyard for our first sampling.  Even though it was right in our backyard so to speak, none of us had ever been to this food stall.

Fancy food stand.  Most are a tent and card table - BA pic

And so the day went.  Jesse would pull over, dash out of the van and then bring back a sampling of whatever food/drink/fruit/sweet/etc....then he or Bruce would divide it up, giving us all a little sample.  We tried many, many, many, many unusual and yummy things.

Saheena and kachouri

Bruce played official photographer.  Thank you Bruce for all the wonderful pics.  Tom was our official scribe keeping track of all the things we sampled.

Bruce cutting up a custard apple

Which brings up another important factor.  I told you this tour is world famous as is Jesse.  He does this trip many times during the year.  Each time the tour is slightly different depending on where he goes, what is open and in season.  For whatever reason, a "challenge" has developed to see if each group can break the record for number of things tasted.  The current record stands at 99.  We did not break that.  However, we did darn good at 86.  We were "full as ticks" when we waddled back to our boats 12 hours later.   

Mauby drink - popular but many versions and not all taste alike

I am not going to bore you with detailed description of all 86 items and pics of all.  However, I will list them all out and of course give you plenty of pics to make you drool.  Big thanks again to Bruce for sharing his pics.  I got a few good ones but the bulk of what you see are his - labeled BA for credit.

Chris and Margaret s/v Storm Bay

We had a spectacular day.  Our group was fun and interactive, trying everything and peppering Jesse with a wide variety of questions.  A few in the group were.....ahem....doubles virgins when we departed but returned that evening virgins no more!  Ha!  We all agreed that what we learned about Trinidad food on this tour will and has helped us expand our knowledge on what we order when eating out at a restaurant or food stand and also in what we buy at the fresh market.       

Doubles virgins no more - BA pic

If you ever come to Trinidad, you simply MUST to this tour.  Hands down, one of the best tours we've ever taken anywhere.

Green curry mango (on plate), plums (in sack at bottom), sour cherries (in sack on right) - BA pic

 

Summary for Taste of Trinidad 11-12-2015 with Jesse James

1.)  Pick up at 9:00 sharp.  First stop is roadside stand outside Powerboats

·         Roast Bake – flat bread, not fried

·         Bhaji – greens

·         Smoked Herring

          Aloo (potato) fried

         

A hoppin place -BA pic

  

2.)  Westside Cuisine at Caranage

·         Cheese Pie

·         Meat Pie

·         Fried Bake

·         Saltfish Buljol

·         Pommecythere Chutney (golden apple)

Yummies from Frankies - BA pic

3.)  Frankies on Aripita Avenue in Woodbrook

·         Sada Roti (without split peas)

·         Baigan Choka (smoked eggplant puree)

·         Tomato Choka

·         Fried Okra

·         Bitter Melon (actually a vegetable)

Just what it says - Cow Heel Soup Centre

4.)  Cow Heel Soup Center on Aripita Avenue, Woodbrook

·         Cow Heel Soup with potato and dumpling

BA pic

5.)  Tasty Pies, a roadside stand in downtown Port of Spain – three pies:

·         Vegetable

·         Macaroni

·         Fish

Portugals - BA pic

6.)  Fruit stand outside of downtown Port of Spain

·         Portugals – similar to Clementine Oranges

Tom goes for the HOT peppa double

7.)  Doubles stand in corner parking lot outside of Port of Spain - Tom trying SUPER hot peppa sauce

·         Doubles

·         Saheena

·         Kachouri

·         Bighani Pie

Black and red sorrel

8.)  Roadside stand just past Doubles stand

·         Red and Black Sorrel

BBQ pigtail, macaroni pie and fried casava

9.)  Small cafe in town of Velencia

·         BBQ Pig Tail

·         Macaroni Pie

·         Fried Casava

·         Chicken Pelau Rice

·         Coleslaw

Chiki Toe banana

10.)  Small café in Sangre Grande

·         Callaloo Rice

·         Dahl Sauce

·         Green figs

·         Stewed Pork

·         Sweet Potato

·         Mauby drink

·         Bananas – Chiki Toe and Silk Fig

·         Soursop

·         Sugar Apple

Soursop fruit - BA pic

Me devouring the soursop

11.)  Roadside stand in Sangre Grande

·         Rambutan – small red spiky fruit

Rumbutan and peanut punch - BA pic

12.)  S and S Roti Shop in Sangre Grande

·         Potato and Chana Curry

·         Curry Pumpkin

·         Chicken Curry Gizzard

·         Fried Shark

·         Stewed Chicken

·         Roti Bread – Dahl Puri

·         Curry Mango

·         Sorrell Drink and Peanut Punch

All of the above from S and S minus the drinks - BA pic

Stopped at Manzanilla Beach for a picnic lunch where a stray dog ran off with a package of Dahl Puri.  The rain came and we ate in the van.

Hungry dahl puri theif

13.)  Watermelon stand on Manzanillo Beach Road

·         Watermelon 

I know they look like olives but they are Trinidad plums.  Similar texture to olives, different taste

14.)  Roadside stand just past Mayaro

·         Coconut candy – like a red sugar cake

·         Green Mango Candy

·         Plums (more like olives)

·         Sour Cherry

·         Tamarind Ball (brown sugar lump)

Tamarind balls, sour cherries, plums

15.)  Hoseins Bakery in Rio Claro

·         Coconut Ballerina – rolled red cake

·         Casava Pone (like a bread pudding)

·         Soursop Punch

·         Bread Pudding

·         Fruit Slice Bread

·         Coconut Turnover

·         Pommecythere Fruit

·         Coconut Drop

Pommecythere fruit - golden apple - BA pic

16.)  Bakery truck that passed by while we were stopped at a small lumberyard

·         Custard Pie

·         Red Cake

Coconut Ballerina - BA pic

17.)  Clieves Bar in Tabaquite

·         Roasted Port Cutters

·         Kurma (like cinnamon sticks)

·         Fruit Slice (heavy cake aka Bellyfull)

·         Coconut Bisquit

·         Phdouri (donut holes)

·         Tullum (Toolum – molasses and coconut balls)

Fence?  What fence?

18).  Stop to trespass on farmland to collect fruit (we later learn the land is owned by Jessie’s uncle)

·         Cocoa Beans

·         Grapefruit

19.)  An unknown café/bar on the way to Chaguanas

·         BBQ Chicken Cutters

·         Custard Apple

Busting open the "liberated" coco beans for a sample

      

20.)  El Pecos, Trinidadian fast food buffet on Aripita Avenue

·         Festive Rice

·         Baked Fish

·         Baked Lentils

·         BBQ Lamb

·         Macaroni Salad

·         Spicy Pickle Salad

·         Corn Pie

·         Jerk Pork

·         Portugal Juice

·         Passion Fruit Juice

$150 TT per 750 ml - $24 US

    

Total of 86 different items

Also purchased limes and honey (Seenath’s in Manzanilla (1084 Eastern Main Road)          

Ah - Life is Good

Free Food - Crabs and Watermelon

Pat = "Um, oh....Tom?  You need to come out here." - outside of boat
Joan= "What?" - climbing out into cockpit
Tom ="What's up?" - below
Sabrina = "What's going on?" - below
Pat = "Uummm, you just need to come out here and see."
Joan = "Oooh!" - now in cockpit
Tom = "Ok.  What is it?" - climbing out to see
Sabrina = "WHAT?  Is everything ok? - still below 
Pat = "You just need to come out here."
Sabrina = "Is something wrong?  Is everything ok?"  Mild panic "Will someone please tell me WHAT is going on?"- as I head for companionway in mild panic.
Joan = "NO, NO, NO....nothing is wrong.  It's a good surprise."

Blue crabs just waiting for us

What we found on the dock was a bucket of 10 blue crabs.  Cruiser Jessie (the great crab catcher) had left them for us to enjoy.  Thanks Jessie!!!

Pat starts the transfer with our tongs

We had slept in and thus found them mid-morning.  At the urging of Bill (our super-duper dock mate) we sprung into action.  Pat ran for a bag of ice at the dock office.  We put the ice in a cooler and then an old shirt down on top the ice.  Apparently if you lay them directly on the ice, it will kill them because ice is fresh water.  Also if you lay them down upside down, it will kill them as well.

Sometimes it takes a village or at the very least some dock mates

The next step was moving them from the bucket to cooler.   While we have long tongs, they really weren't long enough and the crabs were....crabby.  They started waving around their claws with great speed.  Soon we had two wooden spoons and a spatula out to help us - HEY, it was all we had.  A dock neighbor's advice was "just pick them up."  He acted like I was crazy when I asked if he had crab tongs.  I said "come show us how."  He reached in and almost got pinched big time.  "Whoa!, these are angry little crabs.  Not at all like the Dungeness crabs we have in Seattle."  We had a good laugh later with him about that.  Bill (our super-duper dock mate) came to the rescue with proper crab tongs. 

They SEEM docile but they are NOT!

Even though we got them on ice, they were starting to bubble meaning they were starting to die.  (We got quite an education on crabs during all of this.)  We needed to act fast.  Okay - change of plans.  Instead of crab dinner or lunch, we would have crab brunch.  What?  You don't have crab for brunch on Saturday's!

A little spice makes it nice

We started with my pressure cooker pan but soon realized the handles would melt on the grill.  Bill loaned us his crab boiling pot and we got the water on the grill to bring it to a boil.  Luckily I had some Old Bay on the boat so we dumped a bunch of that in the water and waited for the boil.  Watched pot does take a long time to boil.  Especially if it will be boiling up some yummy crabs for Saturday brunch. 

Tom and Joan check out the crab

In the mean time, cruiser Jessie (the great crab catcher) brought his trap over to loan it to Tom.  He had snagged another so our count was up to 11 crabs.  He explained to how to bait and set the trap. 

YUM

Finally the water was boiling.  We put 4 crabs in and waited 10 mins.  They came out that lovely red crab color.  Four more in and another 10 mins.  The last 3 went in and we prepped by adding some chopped garlic and Old Bay to the butter melting in a small sauce pan on the grill.  Our utility drop cloth from the boat worked terrific as a table cloth as things soon got messy.  FINALLY the last 3 crabs were boiled.  Pat gave us a refresher in how to eat crabs as we dug in.  YUM!  So very, very good.  It was simply amazing.  We finished off with a lovely watermelon that Gina had given us.  Thanks Gina!!

Ready to dig in

The carnage and yes those are channel locks.  We don't yet have a lot of the proper gear for crab.

We all enjoyed it so much.  It wasn't just the delicious crabs and watermelon but the whole experience of waking up to a wonderful surprise that took our day in a whole new and unexpected direction.  I wonder what tomorrow will bring?