Trinidad & Tobago’s cuisine is a mix as unique as the blend of ethnicities in the twin island republic. East Indian and Africans make up the majority of the population and as such their cuisines dominate.

According to proprietor of Ram’s Roti Shop in the Oriole Plaza on State Road 7, Frankie ‘Ram’ Ramsook, with the integration in Trinidad, the foods go across ethnic lines and racial barriers.

Ram’s Roti Shop has been around for eight years and although they serve predominantly East Indian Trini foods his clientele is mostly non-East Indian, about 85 percent. He used Pelau (a one-pot rice based dish with spices, herbs, meats etc) as his way of explaining how the cultures have combined to create foods that no longer belong to any one ‘ethnic’ group.

But to help us understand what each culture brings to the country’s cuisine, Ram told CNWeekly News the obvious difference between the two would be that the East Indian community uses a lot more curry in their dishes while the African community has more dishes that are produce based, such as dasheen bush boiled with chicken foot or cow heel.

Other foods like oil down, bake and shark and goat dishes are from the African community, while the Indian community uses more vegetable based dishes like choka which is made with tomato roasted with garlic and bagie (a spinach-like veggie) with lots of rice and roti.

However, on a Sunday, across homes in T&T families enjoy macaroni pie, potato salad and stew chicken, despite ethnicity.

Back in Florida, at the roti shop, Ram serves authentic Trinidadian foods made by Trinidadians with spices and ingredients from Trinidad. With items on the menu such as doubles – a vegetable sandwich made with channa (chick peas) and cooked with kelantro and chutney; bake and saltfish; chicken roti and many others, Ram’s Roti Shop is as Trini as it gets.

Ram also mentioned that Trinidad was featured on Andrew Zimmern’s Bizarre Foods on the Travel Channel and that the host sampled some of Trinidad’s most bizarre foods like iguana, manique (possum) and raw oysters.

As T&T celebrates its 45^th anniversary, one can expect to see families and friends gathering and there will be music, their will be dancing, but most of all, there will be food!