Trini To Di Bone?… Or Belly?

Food Review

Mar 31

I decided to complete my 30th journey around our big ole pipin’ hot sun with a trip to one of my favourite places - Trinidad & Tobago. Fun fact: I ALMOST moved to Trinidad. Yep. I was in the process of getting my CSME Certificate and everything to be able to move to Port of Spain after I graduated from college. This wasn’t random by the way. This plan came after living there for 5 months in early 2018 as a part of my Junior Year Abroad program. Unfortunately things didn’t work out the way they planned — and thankfully so because I would’ve moved by end of 2019 and COVID-19 made it’s debut in early 2020… Can you imagine being quarantined in a new country within months of moving there?

Despite cancelling my post-graduation plans, Trinidad & Tobago remains very special to my heart. I absolutely LOVE it there. It was the first Caribbean country I ever visited (outside of Jamaica), and I am incredibly fond of the time I’ve spent there. So I decided for my 30th birthday, that I would go back to this special place — and yes, I did take every chance to nudge Bradley on why we should move there eventually… he is not totally convinced.

One of the things that impresses me the most about Trinidad is how different and varied the food is — it’s actually the main reason why WongaGyal even became a thing. My time in Trinidad forced me to question the monolithic idea that people have of the Caribbean. I was eating food I had never heard of before. I was witnessing relationships and behaviours in respect to food that I was unfamiliar with. I was being interrogated about the way that my countrymen prefer food with such wide eyed wonder. It also led to me asking, “What the hell is Jamaica doing when it comes to street food?”

Say all of that to say, I went back to Trinidad on a mission to re-live some of those tongue tingling flavours… and to try some new ones. Here’s everything I ate in Trinidad & Tobago during the 2025 Trinidad Carnival season.

Day 0

**KFC Karnival Krunch Mode**

We arrived at our hotel room in Trincity on Carnival Wednesday at almost 11PM. Our car rental service - SIXT - had offered us food vouchers to KFC while we waited for our car to be ready.
First thing to notice? KFC in Trinidad has self ordering screens. That’s right. You don’t have to interact with a KFC employee to place your order. You select what you want, pay for it (using a debit or credit card) and then wait for your order number to be called.
Second thing to notice? Trinidadian KFC has fully embraced the Carnival spirit — as do other major brands found here. Their branding for the season incorporated motifs of Ole Mas characters like moko jumbies and the Dame Lorraine.

**I don’t eat Spicy Chicken. Come Fight Me.**

Final thing to notice? Trinidad KFC does not taste better than Jamaican KFC. I said what I said (*the Trinis continue to come for me in my TikTok comment section over this as we speak*). I felt that way back in 2018. I still feel that way in 2025. It can eat though, for sure. Better than the US by far.
Check out my full Day 0 review HERE.

Day 1

Day 2

Check out my full DAY 2 review HERE.

**Burger King**

No. I didn’t actually want Burger King. I really wanted something more “Trini” but nothing at West Mall was tickling my fancy… but we were STARVING. So we landed on Burger King.
It was my first time having BK in Trinidad actually. I went with my usual order: American Chicken Sandwich. And I will say… it tasted different.
BK (and many fast food joints in T&T) use locally sourced ingredients for everything. The chicken, the bread, the veggies… all locally sourced… and you can taste it. Even the mayonnaise was very obviously locally produced.

**Smoothie King**

If it’s one chain I’d love to come to Jamaica, it’s Smoothie King. I am yet to find a smoothie producer here than gets the consistency of a Smoothie King smoothie.
Ended my day with an Angel Food smoothie… and all felt right with the world.

Day 3

Today was a full day of eating between Soca Brainwash & ending on Ariapita Avenue. Hang tight.
Check out my full DAY 3 review HERE.

**Soca Brainwash**

Soca Brainwash is one of the premiere all inclusive fetes of the soca season. It’s extremely popular — even among tourists — because it’s hosted by the one and only DJ Private Ryan. It is a more expensive fete, with tickets exceeding US$200. But after experiencing this for the first time, I can safely say that I would pay the money again. I could very obviously and clearly see where ever dollar of my ticket money went.
And one of those places was the Food Village. It was the largest Food Village I’ve ever seen at a party. You could honestly eat breakfast, lunch, dinner & 3 snacks here. If you didn’t have food at home and came to Soca Brainwash, you’d have been fed for the entire day.

**Aunty Wendy’s Dumplin & Tings**

Aunty Wendy fulfilled my every Trini craving. At the top of the plate is Trini Style Stew Chicken, then on the left I think is a Stew Pork situation. ON THE RIGHT THOUGH, is one of my favourite foods in the whole entire world — Trinidadian Callaloo. It is made from an entirely different leafy green than Jamaican Callaloo, and it has a soupy / slimy texture. It’s common to use a meat to add some umami flavour — my favourite way to have it is with crab, but Aunty Wendy cooked this one down with pigstail and my gosh it was muy delicioso. Salty, fatty, slimy, peppery perfection.
Underneath that were pigeon peas - a common legume in Trinidadian food. But all of what has been mentioned so far were the TINGS… underneath all that were the DUMPLINS.
Very similar to Jamaican boiled dumplin, but they were quite flat and cut into triangles. What made them standout to me were that they were flavoured. I tried the coconut dumplin, the carrot dumplin and the spinach dumplin. All starchy and delicious. The coconut was my favourite!

**John’s Geera**

Yes, we’re still at Soca Brainwash. And yes, we had geera.
You’ll hear that word a lot in Trinidad. It’s one of those words that started out as just an ingredient, but has grown into a description of a cooking technique. “Geera” is another word for “cumin”, which is a staple seasoning in Indian cuisine. To have “Geera ____” in the Trinidadian sense, means that the _____ has been marinated and cooked down with cumin seeds, garam masala and pepper.
At Soca Brainwash, I tried Geera Duck for the first time. As a Chinese Jamaican… Me? Love my duck! And all I will say about this duck was that we went back THREE times for more. In the words of my friend Sule, “*This is f*cking exquisite.*”

**White Oak Lollies**

Yep. We’re still at Soca Brainwash.
In Trinidad, they call icicles / popsicles, lollies. Make note of that. White Oak is the Trinidadian version of Wray & Nephew. From a taste perspective, Mr Wray is certainly more pungent and has higher alcoholic content, but White Oak is a Trinidadian staple — it even has it’s own popular combination: “White & Sprite”.
We were handed these White Oak Pina Colada Lollies to cool down because the sun was certainly beating on my neck back. I didn’t love the texture though - it felt a bit chalky, but the flavour wasn’t bad and I loved that there was a whole maraschino cherry frozen into the top.

**Kurma**

After Soca Brainwash, we took to Ariapita Avenue (more commonly known as “The Ave”). We lymed by a bar for a bit and drank Stag. While there, a lady came up to us selling kurma, which is a popular Trinidadian sweet snack.
The best way to describe kurma (*to me*) is like a thickened crust of a gizzada. It’s very sugar and ginger forward and has a thick crunch to it.
I wouldn’t say this is my favourite thing, but I certainly enjoyed it alongside my Stag.

**Pelau at Club Royal Caribbean**

Every now and again, Bradley and I will venture into a casino for fun. It’s never serious, and we never gamble big, but it’s something we both enjoy the thrill of in short unserious spurts.
So we ventured into Club Royal Caribbean — also on The Ave. A common occurrence in casinos is that they’ll give you food and drink on the house (*of course it’s not really on the house, because you’ve paid for it in the money you’ve lost gambling*). This is very much so a tactic to encourage you to stay in the casino. You came in with clothes, the casino roof is your shelter and you’re fed: all basic needs met, right?
My food experiences in casinos are never anything to gloat about though. Usually some randomly seasoned chicken on a kebab. But this time? We got a whole plate of pelau with coleslaw!
Pelau is a Trinidadian one pot rice dish — very similar to the Nigerian jollof or the Spanish paella. It of course commonly features pigeon peas… and this one? Was delicious.

**Kebab Station**

The final meal of the day was an “end of the night of drinking, we need something to munch on after this 35min drive home” meal from Kebab Station, another spot on The Ave.
Bradley and I both got gyros and we shared a serving of fries.
Let’s talk fries first.
One thing you need to know about Trinidadian food culture is that they are SAUCY people. A lot of their savoury foods are doused in some form of liquid — heck, they even put ketchup on pizza. So you see these fries here? They’re not special. This is just how Trinis do fries. When they ask you what you want on the fries, and you say “everything”, this is what you’re getting: ketchup, bbq sauce, garlic sauce and pepper sauce (sometimes mustard too).

Now onto the gyro.

Gyros (*pronounced “jai-ros”*) are a very popular street food in Trinidad… but these are not to be confused with Greek Gyro (*pronounced “yee-ro”*). A Trinidadian gyro is more favourable to the Middle Eastern shawarma… which makes sense since it’s popularity in the Trinidadian food scene is due to the contributions of the Syrian-Lebanese community in Trinidad.
The meat is cooked on a vertical spit, and you watch them shave off the meat before being rolled up with veggies in a grilled dough. My favourite gyro filling is lamb. Nothing sits down in your belly and sops up alcohol for a good night’s sleep like a lamb gyro. I don’t make the rules.

Day 4

Day 5

Check out my full DAY 5 review HERE.

**Jumbeez J’ouvert**

We started Carnival Monday bright and early with Jouvert Jumbeez. And when I say bright and early… I mean we woke up at 1AM to be out on the road by 3AM to march, wine and wuk up with paint, mud and water until about 9AM.
Breakfast greeted us at the end of the march of course, but I was severely disappointed in my meal! Mind you, there were a lot of options — including KFC and Pizza Hut. However, when I saw that “Bake & Saltfish” sign, I made a BEELINE.
I don’t know if you can tell from this photo but this is indeed NOT bake. Bake is another form of fried dough in Trinidad, and it’s typically filled with a juicy protein or vegetable like cooked down saltfish or tomato choka. But this was not Bake. It was a burger bun. And the saltfish was so dry and likkle bit. I felt betrayed.

But luckily, our disappointment was saved with this doubles. After some gnashing of teeth and tongue and nearly an altercation, we got some doubles… and went home to get ready for the Carnival Monday road march.
No. Jouvert is not Carnival Monday road march.
Yes. We were voluntarily going to do another road march.
It is 9AM and we’ve already walked 24K steps.
Keep calm and wuk up on.

**Carnival Monday with Tribe**

After a long morning, we made it on the road just in time for lunch on Carnival Monday. The Tribe lunch stop was firmly placed at the Savannah, and it was MASSIVE.
As good little tourists, we opted for the Creole food tent, which had Pumpkin Rice, Trini Style Stew Chicken & Mashed Yucca (Cassava). Everything in this circular container was absolutely scrumptious. The flavours went well together. It was Trinidad in a bowl, and it was just what I needed to make my day better (15 minutes before this, a drunkard boxed my phone out of my hand and broke the entire phone screen).

Before leaving the lunch stop, I also had a Chunky Kit Kat bar and the greenest orange I’ve ever had in my life. I ate it though. Needed that Vitamin C to beat whatever flu was going around in Trinidad.
While on the road, we found a bicycle cart that was doing snow cones! This was the most delicious snow cone I’ve ever had. You could get it with alcohol (White Oak), but I opted not to. You could get either Pineapple or Guava, or both. I opted for Guava. The sun was blazing, but I was so incredibly content with my guava snow cone.
Thanks Tribe.
Not shown today but we ended the day with the only thing Trinidad KFC has over Jamaican KFC - the Spicy Nuggets. They make a reappearance on Day 10.

Day 6

**Carnival Tuesday Is My Birthday!**

Today I celebrated 30 years of chucking around on Planet Earth.
I woke up to breakfast in bed, courtesy of Bradley, which included a pie — Trinidad’s version of a patty, but closer to an empanada. I had been lamenting about how badly I wanted a beef pie, and hadn’t been in a situation to get one since we got to Trinidad. The hotel was serving potato pie for breakfast this morning, and so Bradley brought one up for me. It was no beef pie, but it did the job for the time being.

**Freezie**

Upon entering the lunch stop on Carnival Tuesday, we were greeted with Freezies — a Trinidadian brand of Kisko. We had gotten out on the road earlier today, and so by the time we got to lunch, we were dripping in sweat.
This Freezie saved my life. I originally didn’t want it because it was "Grape” flavoured, and I’m not the biggest fan of Grape flavoured things. But it was so hot, and the only other option was Strawberry Milk flavour, and I didn’t want to risk the lactose drama on the road.
But wow. Let’s just say. I had 2 Grape Freezies at the lunch stop. I went to the supermarket 3 times after Carnival Tuesday and bought Freezies. On one supermarket run, I bought 4 of them. I ate them all.
Total Freezie Consumption Count: 9.

**Lunch on Carnival Tuesday with Tribe**

After the smashing success of yesterday’s lunch, we went back to the Creole tent. Today’s offering was fish with mashed cassava and steamed veggies. This meal wasn’t bad, but I wouldn’t have it again. I also didn’t finish it.
The fish was a bit bland. The cassava was just too starchy for me. And the steamed vegetables were nothing special. The sauce on the fish was good though, but how much sauce can a girl eat?
Bradley got Hakka. I should’ve joined him.

**Last Lap on Carnival Tuesday**

At the end of the parade, all of the Tribe bands (Tribe, Lost Tribe, Harts & Bliss) converged to Last Lap for a final jam and food.
Not pictured are the 2 slices of Hawaiian Mario’s Pizza that I devoured. Was the pizza cold? Yes. Was the dough dense? Yes. Did I eat it all? Yes.
Bradley then saved the day with a beef pie from Linda’s Bakery. This is what I’d like to call an uptown beef pie though— a little more fancy and flakey than the standard beef pie you’d find at a street food vendor. But it certainly did the job! There was also a cheese pie in this box.
Check out my full DAY 6 review HERE.

Day 7

Check out my full DAY 7 review HERE.

**Dairy Queen**

Did I start my day with ice cream? I absolutely did. I’m on vacation.
Ash Wednesday is always the day after Carnival Tuesday. But since Trinidad basically shuts down for Carnival Monday AND Tuesday, Ash Wednesday is not an observed public holiday.
We’re on vacation though. And it’s a public holiday in Jamaica. So to the beach we go!
But before we get there, we stopped at Aya Styler for some Trinidadian jewelry, and in the same plaza was a Dairy Queen — another American fast food joint, not found in Jamaica. I was really feeling for some ice cream, and the day was HOT, so I tried the Mango Cheesecake Blizzard. No notes. 10/10.

**Lookout on the way to Maracas Bay**

To get to the famous Maracas Bay Beach, you journey through the hills of northern Trinidad. And a very popular activity to do on your journey, is to stop at the lookout point and indulge in local treats.
We bought so many things here: pawpaw balls, coconut fudge, haw flakes, sour cherry chow, but most importantly MANGO CHOW.
Remember what I told you about Trinidadians and sauce? Chow is a pickled fruit salad with culantro and garlic. Think of it as spicy fruits. The 2 most popular fruits to chow (from what I’ve heard) are mango and pineapple.
I forgot that mango chow was made with green mango, and so I gave it some big talk but I was on the only fan of it in the car. Upon hindsight, I do think I prefer pineapple chow better, because it’s sweeter. But the mango chow did what it needed to do on this trip.

**Bake & Shark at Maracas Bay from Uncle Sam & Sons**

Another of the most internationally known Trinidadian delicacies is Bake & Shark. It’s one of those foods that you can definitely get in Port of Spain, but something about the ambiance of Maracas Bay makes it 10 times better. It’s just like how fried fish just slaps differently when you’re at Hellshire.
As said before, bake is a light fried dough, and the shark is breaded and seasoned fried fish (*do not ask me if it’s really shark, ask a Trini*). You can fill it with a variety of toppings, but I went with lettuce, tomato, ketchup, garlic sauce and pepper.
By the time I ate this, my belly was so full. But my brain? She wanted like 3 more. I’d fly back to Trinidad right now, just to have another Bake & Shark. It’s my favourite fish sandwich ever.

**Birthday Dinner at Chaud Cafe**

As a foodie, I couldn’t let my birthday pass and not have a food filled celebration.
I decided on Chaud Cafe because when I was in Trinidad back in 2018, we had dinner one night at Chaud when it was at the Normandie Hotel. And that meal was exquisite. I remember having the duck and it was beautifully roasted and tender. I was on the hunt for that duck again.
Chaud has since closed, but Chaud Cafe & Wine Bar opened to keep the Chaud brand alive. Unfortunately they did not have the duck — it was on their Instagram, but the waitress informed me that it was seasonal. Another one bites the dust. But this Cream of Pumpkin to start was salted and creamed to perfection.

As for the remainder of the meal though, I felt a bit underwhelmed.

From top L - R, this was Bradley’s Steak Frites, which he didn’t love, and he thought he’d be getting fries. He said the steak was just okay (and he’s a steak guy). My pork belly was a bit too charred for my liking. It was incredibly tender though, and the meat without the jar was juicy and flavourful, but the char didn’t help this dish in my opinion. The lentils on the right were the best thing we had for the main course, and I’m NOT a legume girl. There was a creaminess to them that just worked, and they were seasoned so well.

From bottom L - R, this was the Mahi Ceviche and I did not like this at all. There was a sourness in smell and taste that was unappealing, and the rubbery texture did this ceviche no favours. I am a big ceviche fan, and this was the first one I’ve ever come across that I did not like. In the center was Juleen’s Pork Ribs, which were the best meat that we had at the table — I regret not getting this instead of the pork belly! We also got fried yucca which was quite starchy, but in a very good way.

I’ve officially spent 2 hours and 30 minutes writing this blog post. So I’m going to take a pause here.

We still have 3 days left, but they’re all about my trip to Tobago! So I think I’ll do a separate blog entry about my Tobago eats.

Until then… see you soon! And hit me up for food recs if you’re ever heading to sweet T&T!

WongaGyal

Tiana (aka WongaGyal) claims her spirit animal is baked macaroni & cheese. She’s not powered by coffee, but matcha or chai lattes will do - always on ice.