My Mouth goes Mmmmm Mmmmm Mmmmm

I spent my teenage years in the lovely caribbean island of Trinidad. 50% of the population is of India Origin and it shows in the food. My favorite snacks growing up were phulourie and doubles, which are the Trinidadian versions of Indian Snacks pakodas and chola-bhatura. Man those were the days!

Holy Faith Convent, Couva. My high school. Lunch Break at 11am. Time to run to the cafeteria. Reason - freshly fried phulourie - 6 for a dollar, soaking up some home-made tamarind sauce with plenty of pepper and garlic, served to you in a little brown bag. The brown bag captured the steam from the hot phulourie and the taste was just to die for and the price was easy on the pocket money :-)

On Sundays after attending services at the Local Mandir, we would head to the nearest doubles stand. Doubles is basically 2 pieces of fried dough, eaten as a sandwich, with a filling of chana, kuchela(kinda like grated mango achar) and hot sauce. Washed down with fresh coconut water.

Man those were the days!

5 years into marriage, I decided it was high time my husband was introduced to the wonderful tastes of Trinidad cuisine. I've though about this before, but lacked access to key trinidadian indegrients. Until I found a website where I could order them. My package came today and I was in 7th heaven. Tamarind sauce, Mango Kuchela, Red Mango, Hot Sauce, Green Seasoning, Pomsiterre Amchar and Phulourie Mix. Just the names make my mouth go mmmmm mmmm
mmmmm.

Today became remember your youthday. The smell of the phulourie batter put me in a trance. I tried to recapture the steam of the brown bags by putting the fried phulourie into paper towels and a ziploc bag... pretty good I must say! And the tamarind chutney was to die for. There ain't anything like Trinidadian Tamarind Chutney in this world! My mouth went mmmmmm mmmmm mmmmm.

The doubles came out pretty good too. Though being health concious I roasted my doubles on the tava rather than frying them. The kuchela, hot sauce and tamarind sauce transported me back to the island. All I was missing was some green coconut water.

Man those were the days! But today's efforts were well worth the taste :-) .. and there's more of that phulourie batter left over ...

My Mouth goes Mmmmm Mmmmm Mmmmm ...