Trinidad & Tobago’s prized one-pot dish: Pelau

Pelau by Tara Donaldson

There’s something about tasting food in a new country that’s a little like magic. Like the essence of that country transformed into the meal before you with the sole purpose of making you understand the place and its people.

And flavor. Flavor is what colors the palate and paints a picture of the people there and where they’ve come from and what transpired as their nation took shape to bring you the very ingredients that flavor their food. Flavor is what makes the act of tasting one of life’s greatest joys.

Nowhere does flavor better for me than the Caribbean—and namely Trinidad and Tobago. The sweet twin-isle nation is equal parts spicy, saucy and rich with culture. Just like its food.

Trinidad and Tobago has a storied past, from being settled by the Spanish, to land grants inviting Scottish, Irish, German and Italian families, to people from the neighboring French Caribbean migrating there during the French Revolution, to the British taking over the country as its own colony. The nation ultimately rose and gained its independence, but over the years, each set of settlers left their mark on the country’s cuisine and the flavors that pepper people’s pots.

One of the island’s staple dishes, pelau, perhaps serves as the best evidence…

Read on for the recipe and more at CrushGlobal, my girl Kristin Braswell’s site for uniquely crafted, curated travel experiences. Check it out!