True Trinidadian Food

...is Corn Soup all that it's cracked up to be?

Corn soup is true Trinidadian food, a complete, nutritious, and balanced meal in a cup. Well, that's if you buy it from a roadside vendor, like most people do. And just the mere mention of it conjures up memories of Trinidad Carnival.

This is the premiere after fete food, warm liquid love to set your feet on the right path home, the carnival pick-me-up. As you can no doubt tell I am a big fan of Corn Soup, but believe me when I say that it is also the favorite of many carnival masqueraders, Jouvert revelers, and partygoers; the ill, the weary, and the wounded; and anyone else who craves delicious Caribbean comfort food.

 Corn Soup or Sancoche 

Corn Soup is in essence a Sancoche, which in Trinidad is a savory split pea based soup featuring a selection of ground provisions and rooty vegetables, which could include any of the following: eddoes, sweet potato, dasheen, cassava or manioc (root crop of the Caribs), carrots, green fig or plantain, pumpkin and the like, along with some form of meat, usually salted pig tail. And more recently, as the name Corn Soup implies, sections of corn have been introduced as the featured ingredient.

 Great Festival Food 

Corn soup, along with Trinidad Doubles, Shark and Bake, and Phoulorie Balls, is Trinidadian food locals love to share with visiting friends but seldom cook at home.

These are festival foods - street foods - but don't be fooled by the lowly status, day or night they are a delight, and it should be a culinary crime for anyone to leave Trinidad without first trying them. These Trinidadian foods are as much part of Trinidad culture as Maracas Beach, Steelband, Calypso, Phagwa, Parang, Trinidad Roti and Hosay. It's an ethnic callaloo of which Trinidadians can be very proud.

 Sancoche, Sancocho 

Sancoche was often the traditional end of the week meal in Trinidad, a pre-market day maca fouchette. Several of the Caribbean islands have their own versions, as do many Latin American countries. Dominica's traditional Sancoche is made with fish instead of meat, and cooked with coconut milk, somewhat like another popular Trinidadian food, Oildown.

In Columbia, their traditional Saturday soup is called Sancocho; it is made with a variety of meats and root crops including cassava and different types of South American potato. Sancocho literally means stew, or to cook with water for a long time.

 Delicious Trinidad Corn Soup 

Sancoche is part of Trinidad's Hispanic heritage, 300 years of Spanish rule, but there is also a strong West African heritage of soup making with ground provisions. Some say that the roots of Sancoche hark back to a time when there was but one pot to prepare the single "daily meal", a meal usually made of root crops, green bananas, and breadfruit (inexpensive ingredients), which had to be as hearty and filling as possible, able to sustain a man for an entire day.

While still often cooked in big pots for large crowds, Corn Soup has become a treasured Trinidadian food. It has come a long way from its early beginnings. Today, Corn Soup is prepared in gourmet restaurants in Port of Spain. My father-in-law's authentic Trinidad Corn Soup recipe, which we will share with you in our Trinidad Recipes section, has been call "too good to be cooked by a man", and is a hot item at our carnival fetes.