When Pam Jacob opened Pam’s Kitchen in Seattle, she put down roots far away from the Caribbean hubs of New York City and Miami. But after visiting from Trinidad and Tobago in 1987, she decided that Seattle was the perfect place to serve the cuisine of her home island. The spices and freshness of Trinidadian food were nowhere to be found.
Luckily for Seattle, Pam moved here in the early 90s, and in 2006 decided it was finally time to start her restaurant. She wouldn’t be cooking the eclectic sandwiches that she served at her snack shack in Trinidad. Instead she would focus on Trindadian home cooking: Curries, rotis, and everything made from scratch.
Since then Pam has made tweaks to traditional dishes to make them her own — even some Caribbeans are surprised when their order comes with a side of Pam’s flare. But everything she creates, from the menu to the space itself, is rooted in Trinidadian tradition. Pam explains how this all came to be in our discussion below.
What makes the Trinidadian food unique? And then what about its history led to that?
I was born in Trinidad and Tobago, but originally my great grandparents were brought to Trinidad from India. They were part of a group that were brought as indentured servants, while large groups of Africans were brought to the country as slaves. So we’re kind of a melting pot in Trinidad. We’re 40% Indian descendants like me, 40% African descendants, the other 20% are Americans, Chinese, Europeans, and everything else.
When the indentured servants came from India to Trinidad, they brought their seasonings and a new way of cooking. Trinidadian curry has evolved from its Indian origins as it adapted new herbs and spices available in the Caribbean. It’s different from East Indian, Middle Eastern or Asian curries that all use a variety of different spices. Ours is simple. We use a lot of green seasoning, which was always made fresh when I was growing up. We would go to the meat depot and buy a chicken, or the fisherman would pass by and we’d buy some fish. It never came frozen or packaged from the store. And then my mom would go out to the backyard where there was all the seasoning we needed.
There were curry leaves, and something called chadon beni — it almost has the flavor of cilantro. We have a small thyme, and a big leaf thyme that we call podina. We mix these herbs together with onion, garlic, black pepper and salt. And that’s our green seasoning, which is used in curries and lots of other dishes.
We practice this kind of cooking here at the restaurant. We break down all of our meats here: lamb, goat, chicken, beef — no shortcuts. Every vegetable and salad green is cut, washed, and spin-dried in the kitchen. We make our own salad dressing, jerk sauce, hot sauce. Even ice cream. Everything we do here is from scratch.
What dishes would you recommend for someone who has never tried Trinidadian food?
Pelau is something that I grew up making with my mom. It’s a coconut rice made with lots of vegetables and chicken, or you can use any kind of meat you want. People in Trinidad will cook it at home and take it to outings with their families. It’s also made during Carnival, which is a big celebration on the island in the two days before Ash Wednesday every year.
It’s easy to make, too. For the first 15 minutes you cook the meat in a burnt sugar sauce. While the chicken is cooking, you put the rice in, stir it out a little bit, then you add some water, coconut milk, vegetables, seasoning, cover it and cook! If you have a good green salad or a coleslaw on the side, it’s a fantastic meal.
Curry with rotis (Trinidad’s bread) is a staple in the Indian part of Trinidad, and now rotis are made by everyone across the island.
There’s a street food called Doubles. You take two pieces of bread, which are soft and fluffy, and put slow-cooked garbanzo beans between them. But I don’t do it every day. I will do it on some Sundays and put it on Facebook and Instagram. People will call and order 10, 15, and 20, and then they’re gone.
Pam making Doubles at the restaurant
I’ve had to practice because it’s not something you make at home in Trinidad. Groups of people will cook it all night, then in the morning they send them out on bicycles to every corner of Trinidad. You order them with a soft drink or a fresh coconut.
Curry Crab and Dumplings is a dish in Trinidad, made with the green seasoning. Everybody has their own take on the dish — I don’t think anybody does the original anymore.
If you come to the restaurant, the first thing I’ll do is ask if they like spicy food. Because the pelau is the only thing I’ll make without spice. The Jerk Chicken and the Jerk Pork are the hottest, and the most flavorful.
What has been the biggest challenge in educating customers about Trinidadian food?
The first five years of the restaurant, we had to teach people where Trinidad was on a map. So I would tell someone “Trinidad is in the Caribbean and is one of the last islands. It’s next to Venezuela.” Then they’d come back the next week and ask, “so what part of India is this from?” I think they were confused because they could see I looked Indian.
The roti was a problem. It would sell, but we would have to explain it over and over. “Well, Roti is our bread. When you go to QFC, you see white bread, rye bread, French bread. But in Trinidad, we have four different kinds of rotis that have different names. So it’s all rotis.”
Here in the restaurant we have two different rotis. We have one that you can wrap and another that is called paratha or buss up shut that is served on the side. That seems simple but it took forever to teach people.
Caribbean people used to give my workers a hard time because in Trinidad roti is a popular street food. It comes wrapped like a big burrito, and the chicken is cut up with the bones and everything. So when you buy a roti from a roti shop in Trinidad, or even in New York, you say, “I want a chicken roti”. They know exactly what you want. They’re going to put the chicken and then wrap it up for you. But that’s not how it’s ordered at our restaurant.
Do you feel like it’s any better now?
Oh yeah, now my American customers know exactly what rotis they want. After 15 years they better, right? But I’m very happy with how far everyone’s come.
What is the atmosphere of the restaurant in a non-covid world like?
Trinidadians are a happy-going people. We would have steel drums and other live music at the restaurant every last Saturday of the month. It had the place so active. And it’s not one of those restaurants that you sit down and the waiter or waitress is bugging you every 10 minutes to move you out of the restaurant. When I opened this restaurant I was so tired of how customers were treated. I wanted a place where people could come in and feel like they’re in my kitchen. Comfortable enough to relax and have several drinks without feeling rushed — I think people get that right away.
I don’t know what it is that I put out there. People tell me, “Pam we walk in here and we feel accepted”. And that is something I really wanted for this restaurant. And it turned out to be exactly that. People come in, I’m in the kitchen, and my son is the barman. It’s like being at someone’s home.
To experience a Trindadian meal made from scratch, visit Pam at Pam’s Kitchen in Wallingford. Check out our other interview to learn more about her moving to Seattle, starting the restaurant, and weathering the stresses of Covid. And stay tuned for Pam’s recipe for Pelau, the wonderful coconut rice dish which celebrates family and Carnival in Trinidad.
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