🥭 slowing down on the sister islands of Trinidad + Tobago
reflections on a few weeks of good eats, sunshine, saltwater, and family time. plus a recipe for mango chow + my beach bag essentials
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ay ay ay, too many months later and I’ve finally made it back here. I’ve opened this blank page about a dozen times to start, and have just been met with a mind that’s too jumbled and dark to access my innermost thoughts or create anything beautiful (iykyk). but right now, I find myself many, many thousands of miles away from nyc, very, very much OOO (out of office), in a place that makes it hard to do anything but enjoy, and I’m finally starting to feel my own spark again.
for those who don’t know, my papa is from the southernmost Caribbean islands of Trinidad and Tobago. most people give me semi-puzzled looks when I share that, so I always add that it’s right above Venezuela - so close that on a clear day you can see the coast from the southwestern-most tip. trinis - on account of mass migration, history of indentured servitude, colonization, etc - are a little bit of everything: african, chinese, east indian, spanish, french, dutch, british, syrian-lebanese, indigenous - all enthusiastically meshed and interconnected, rather than kept separate. It’s what makes T&T quite singular when you think about the rest of the Caribbean, Latin America, and I’d even venture to say the world.
as a result you get: unreal food, a contagiously warm + welcoming culture (everyone greets everyone on the street, strangers inviting you into their homes, etc) a fun accent (british but sing-songy, jolly, and all around feelgood), beautiful people, and lots to celebrate (trinis, in addition to being exceptional fete-ers (partiers) will enthusiastically participate in all cultural traditions + holidays, even ones that aren’t their own).


Trinidad, unlike most other countries in the Caribbean, has not turned into a mirage of all-inclusive resorts and piña colada seeking tourists. they have a huge oil industry that has sustained them for over a century (semi-yikes in our era of #renewable energy). in many ways this self-sustenance / lack of reliance on tourism has helped it retain its magic - slower gentrification, no privatizing or overcrowding of its beautiful beaches, strong retention of culture. on the flip side, I guess, some tourism might help future-proof the islands - creating better infrastructure, more jobs, an improved economy? yet there’s something special in that for me at least, returning every few years for most of my life, it always feels exactly as it was, as it’s always been, frozen in time.
life here is really simple: you’re either liming, feteing, eating, or bathing in the ocean. trinis take all of these very seriously.
liming: to spend time with friends, socialize, or simply hang out. a verb that describes the act of enjoying quality time with others. can also be used as a noun for the socialising activity, “lime”
to lime is the ultimate marker of trini culture - to lime like a trini is to live wholly in the present, to allow yourself to get swept up in moments, to slow down + intentionally make space for friends, family, and a good time over anything too serious (especially work). everyone limes. young people, old people, parents, grandparents. limes can be planned, but I think they love it all the more when it’s not, when the ordinary turns extraordinary - that’s very trini.
🧵 my big crazy beautiful family
my papa is one of eleven (11!) siblings - making our family very very big (I think I have something like 50+ cousins on this side). they’re spread all over the world, but a good bunch are still in t&t. I cherish the family time the most - I feel so lucky + so grateful to have all these aunties and uncles and cousins of mine to tell stories and recall memories with, to stay tethered to where I come from and what matters, to full belly laugh with - and when we’re together it’s always a time.
we had a blissful first morning of the trip at Maracas Bay where we had the beach to ourselves, a full family lime to celebrate my baby cousin’s first birthday (where I devoured my favourite trini meal - stewed chicken, macaroni pie, callaloo, red beans, rice), a daytrip to my uncle’s 10 acres of land in the jungle where he carefully pointed out each cassava plant, pineapple bush, and sweet mango in sight, and I cherished the minutes with my auntie jennifer - a second mom to my dad, and the hostess with the absolute mostest, who very lovingly made us “christmas in July” with a breakfast spread of fresh dinner rolls for ham + pineapple sandwiches with all the fixings, pastelles (trini tamales?), sorrel, and more 💕
I’ll always remember sitting around the table after this meal with her and my cousin, Kevin, sharing memories of my late granny, Alma, - our family’s matriarch. the kindness that radiated from her bones, her pleasant face (that I’m told I’ve inherited), her resilience and selflessness: raising 11 kids mostly on her own, and uprooting her life at the age of 60 to move to NYC to continue working to support her children through university. near the end of our conversation, all three of us teared up at the same memory - a very Yee Yick thing to do.




the best way to a trini’s heart is through their stomach
so much of who I am comes from the meals I shared with my family around the dinner table growing up - and a lot of that comes from the importance of food in Trini culture. it’s how you give + receive love, how you welcome, celebrate and commemorate. my papa + aunties will spend hours and hours, like my granny did before them, lovingly and intently preparing to host their friends + family. they take a lot of pride in both the prep and the hosting, and it’s very special to witness and be on the receiving end of.
my favourites this time around:
doubles, which are two pieces of bara (soft fried flatbread) filled with chana (curried chickpeas) in the most delicious + vibrant sauce
christmas in july by my auntie, of course
tomato-coconut stewed king fish, with lime carrot rice, black beans, and a cucumber, tomato, red onion, hot pepper, + lime salad by my papa
a fish broth he made the next day with the same fish + okra, cassava, tomatoes, + lots of lime
patacones (friend + smashed green plantains) with mahi mahi ceviche + a mango chutney (similar to chow, but more lime), also by my papa
homemade shark + bake, which you typically can only find on the beach in Maracas. bake is another form of fried dough, filled with a lightly breaded shark filet, and topped with red onion, pineapple, tamarind sauce, garlic-mayo sauce, and pepper sauce, by my cousin
peanut punch (which is like a peanut banana smoothie on drugs) from a food stall in the savannah (a big park in port of spain - and reportedly the largest roundabout in the world?!)
mango chow! which I can only really describe as a garlicky, spicy, fruit salad 😂 on most beaches in trini you’ll find a woman with a chow stand, everything can be chow - pineapple, cucumber, portugals (tangerines) but mango is my fave. recipe below :)
and pepper sauce, lots of pepper sauce on everything and anything - a base of scotch bonnet, chadon beni, garlic, vinegar, salt - it has to be flavorful, not just hot




recipe: trini mango chow
2-3 green mangos, cut into small thin pieces (as opposed to squared chunks if that makes sense)
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon chadon beni (culantro) - if you can’t find, cilantro will work fine
2 chili peppers - could be scotch bonnet, habanero, or jalapeño, adjust to the heat you want (less seeds = less heat)
squeeze of lime
salt + pepper
mix, let marinate for ~15 minutes, and enjoy!!! if you get addicted like me, please lmk :)
🏝️ sand, sun, ocean, repeat
apart from limes + meals with family, most of the trip has been spent between the sand and the sea, living our slowest, sunniest, island life. we embarked on a boat adventure around the western coast - where I snorkeled in clear blue ocean with baby squid and lots of dory’s and marveled at three dolphins frolicking along our path. we drank carib’s and ate mango chow with my cousins at store bay. we took a day trip to Englishman’s Bay - which I nostalgically have memory of being at around age 9, where I bought a sarong that I loved for the next decade (of course, I had to buy another one from the same lady to mark the occasion). and back at the house, we floated in the private cove at the end of the staircase, soaking it all up - the rays of sun, the healing seawater, the sound of waves and the comfort of each other’s voices in the openness.




it’s all been absolutely perfect and just what I needed. the trini island life to break up the messiness of my mind and gift me perspective, and mi familia, to remind me of the love and joy that tether me to earth and are core to my being - truly nothing else matters! I’ll try to remember that, ok?
💌 p.s. in case you were wondering
in my beach bag
👙 on the body: don’t sleep on targét! most of my bikinis this summer are from shade + shore, a target brand - because I really cannot bring myself to pay over $50 for swim separates elsewhere. this and this set did elicit compliments from kind trini women on the beach 💁🏽♀️
🧴 on the face: centella daily calming sunscreen spf 50+ pa++++ and shisheido clear sun stick spf 50+ for easy reapplying
🩴 on the feet: mostly barefoot, if not in my havaianas that I picked up last summer in brazil - square toe is elite :)
🌊 in the hair: mostly salt water, with the briogeo style stick + crown affair finishing gel making an appearance for my slick back’s
🥥 for hydration: fresh coconut water from the coconut man + my fave electrolyte reinforcements when needed
hasta la próxima, EYY
Ahhh Emma. What a lovely reflection of time spent with your extended family! You have left a forever heartprint of love for your beautiful T&T culture. And, yes, you are your Granny Alma with soft mama tracings here and there. Thank you for sharing your great big heart! ❤️🇹🇹
also, haviana square toe!! >>