And so was convened, at the edge of the stand run by Claudette Campbell, a sunnier reminiscence. Yes, the "doubles" man is still at the curb. And fruit and pumpkin (it's actually a West Indian calabasa) is still sold by the side of the highway. "I could go for a guava sno-cone right now," offered Campbell's sport-coated son, Khalil; the ice shaved in glossy chips, sweetened with tropical fruit and syrupy condensed milk.
It was a Thursday afternoon and Campbell busied herself. (On Saturdays her daughter Imanamani usually helps out.) Her pot of oxtails was simmered. The patties for her doubles were made - disks of a bhara dough of flour, baking powder, and ground split peas fried in canola oil. (The bottom one is spread with spiced chickpeas and garlicky calabasa, and perhaps curried goat or chicken, spiked with Campbell's homemade sauces - cola-like tamarind, and a chutney of sorts involving grated mango, mustard seed, and garam masala), a mild peach pepper sauce, and a hotter non-peach pepper sauce. That disk is then topped with another, thus making it a doubles.)
They are tasty, street-food snacks - in Trinidad as ubiquitous as burgers in America - their stuffing hinting of a low-key, Indian-style samosa. But the patties are soft and pliable, more akin in chewy texture to the sopes in Mexican cookery.
There is a rhythm to weekdays here (the mostly take-out stand is open Thursday through Saturday). The braised pots of curry goat and chicken, gently seasoned with cumin and coriander, cook early, along with the stewy okra, mashed pumpkin, creamed spinach, and rice and pigeon peas, their Afro-Caribbean and often East Indian flavors prominent, but absent the hot-pepper spicing associated with Jamaica. (In Trinidad, you, not the cook, add hot sauce, and to that end Campbell bottles some of her own.)
