Foodie-Foo Travel Writing
Do What Tastes Right — My Favorite TT Snacks
What are your favorites from around the globe?
Sure the beaches are awesome, especially now that we peeps here in Trinidad & Tobago can actually go to them, but what about the snacks?
Snacks may seem rather insignificant to write about, but I find them vitally important. I can’t survive without my snacks! Here’s a bounty of Trini snacks that help me get through life.
Eat Fresh — Healthy Stuff
My husband Andy and I try as much as possible to maintain a balance between snacks that are sinful and those that are a little more wholesome. One way we achieve this is to always have plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables around.
🍍 Pineapple is a staple in our kitchen, even though they are a bit of a bitch to cut up. Well worth it though. Fresh, vine-ripened pineapple is better than candy and probably just as sweet. The best tasting ones are bought from indie vendors, who pick them early in the morning and then sell them on the streets.
Andy eats fresh picked bananas like he’ll never be able to eat them ever again. I get sick of them quick, but still like them sliced up in my granola or I use them to make banana bread.
🥥 We just bought a small coconut from the infamous Tunapuna Market (link to video) — looking forward to cracking into it later today. We bought a lot of other stuff — fresh carrots, tomatoes, ginger and sweet peppers.
🍇 Imported fruit can be found as well: apples, sweet purple plums and grapes. We buy these sometimes, and for being imported, they taste amazingly fresh.
Now for The More Sinful!
Trinidad & Tobago has a great mix of locally made snacks, some of which are unique and some that are pretty impressive knock-offs of popular American snacks.
🧀 Trinidad’s answer to Ritz is called Dixee. I love cheesy Ritz Bits. The Dixee cheese sandwiches pictured below are comparable in taste. I first discovered these when I sampled a small package on one of my many Caribbean Airlines flights— they hook people up with food, the likes of which puts the American air carriers to shame!
Typically, they give out a small paper lunch bag full of goodies to sample: crackers, cookies and the infamous, hot chicken and cheese sandwich — for airplane food, it’s not too terrible.
🍅 ** Anyone wanna guess where these Vege Crackers hail from? Answer below.
🍪 Devon cookies are crazy popular here, and while they have several different kinds and flavors, Bourbon Creams are a lot of people’s favorites — I’ve seen these featured in TT travel related videos on YouTube. Lightly sweet and with the perfect amount of crispiness, there’s really no suitable American equivalent, although they are similar in nature to Keebler sandwich cookies.
Imported snacks from Europe are very common. The Gullon brand, which hails from Spain, are popular. The Duo cookies pictured above are one of my favorites. I’ve found a lot of other great cookie offerings, some of which hail from from Portugal, Poland and other places.
🍪 I just discovered these marshmallow sandwich cookies, which hail from Turkey. They are quite fantabulous!
🍫 Charles chocolate is the big local chocolate company here. They have standard chocolate bars, which are great, as well as fancier ones like Nuggle — chewy peanut heaven there — and Toco Loco. Toco loco is sort of like KitKat but coconut flavored.
There are many Cacao tree farms here in TT, so I would assume chocolate is something they do not have to import, except for the sake of variety of course — not certain of this though.
🍫 Kit Kat is big here — there’s a huge Nestle plant out on the highway near San Juan, as well as an equally big Cadbury plant not far from it, which also has a large presence here.
Twinkies anyone? Goodie’s are a little more sweet, but not too much. We eat them quite a bit.
What are your favorite snacks from your travels?
I’m sure I will find them interesting!
- ** The Vege Crackers hail from Malaysia! Not bad by themselves, but the addition of a bit of cream cheese is how I prefer to eat them.
Thanks to editor Warren Patterson!!
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