Tobago Foodways

Tobago

Island

⚠ A SEPARATE ISLAND WITH A SEPARATE HISTORY. Tobago changed hands between the Dutch, French, Courlanders and British more often than almost any territory in the Caribbean, was a sugar island, and — crucially — did NOT receive significant Indian indenture. Its population is overwhelmingly Afro-Caribbean and its food shows it. CURRIED CRAB AND DUMPLING is the signature: blue land crab curried whole, with boiled flour dumplings, eaten with the hands. Plus fried and stewed fish, provisions, coo-coo, pelau, goat, breadfruit, callaloo, and the SUNDAY SCHOOL street gathering at Buccoo. ⚠ TOBAGONIAN CREOLE IS ITS OWN LANGUOID in the registry, separate from Trinidadian, which is the clearest evidence that these are two cultures.