Vendor Spotlight: Café Caribbean

There are some incredible food vendors that come to Cariwest year over year. You can see by

the long lines, their hand sweet. Some vendors will close their restaurants during the weekend

to sell exclusively at Cariwest. These vendors cook from scratch, so you know you are getting

the freshest prepared food. For me, it feels like eating by auntie’s house. Everything tastes

slightly different from mummy’s but you know it still tastes like home.

I’d like to introduce you to a fairly new restaurant in Edmonton and a Cariwest food vendor.

The team at Café Caribbean will be serving delicious food at Cariwest for the third year in a row. This year according to Nadine, co-owner of Café Caribbean, “It will be a family affair at our tent, expect to see our immediate, extended, and adopted family out in full force. We could not do what we do without them.” It does seem like a family affair at some of the vendor stations, with extended family coming from the Caribbean and across the continent to help cook. It really brings a home cooked food vibe to the experience.

Nadine says that she loves to feed others. What a truly Caribbean sentiment. I have been to

Caribbean households and usually the first thing they will ask, you want something to eat, drink?

As the old saying goes, “come with yuh belly in yuh hand.” Nadine continues, “anything they

feel like eating, I feel like making.” Nadine’s signature dish is curry goat. You will see that many of the vendors at Cariwest will have similar dishes, like Jerk, curry, roti, doubles etcetera. However, from island to island, the dishes will vary in preparation and taste.

Due to the rise in influencers in the Caribbean, we have seen many people try to elevate the

humble doubles. Café Caribbean has been experimenting with elevating their doubles and the

best combo they have served at the restaurant is the goat doubles. It was a hit with their

customers but for Nadine, she is a traditionalist. Same Nadine, same.

One of the things I see on their socials is their Sunday food. Usually Sunday food is a hearty

lunch served with all the fixings. For me, Sunday food brings back memories of eating while

watching football or the Bollywood film that was on the television. Nadine’s Sunday food is stew chicken, macaroni pie, lentils, rice, potato salad with beets. Or Salt fish and ground provision. Are you drooling yet?

We hope you can stop by Café Caribbean to say hi to Nadine and Pat and their crew. For them,

they love the opportunity to showcase Caribbean culture (especially Trinidadian) and they

believe its so important to keep our culture alive for generations to come.

Slang terms:

• Hand sweet – a good cook

• Cook from scratch – using fresh non-processed ingredients

• Come with yuh belly in yuh hand – come hungry

• Doubles – Traditional Trinidadian dish with curried chickpeas in between two pieces of soft

  dough. Served with savoury, sweet, or hot condiments.