Five South Florida Roti Shops Serving Trinidadian Food

There's something about island fare that's so alluring for mainlanders. Sure, plenty of us have had a taste of Jamaican jerk chicken, Cuban ropa vieja, Puerto Rican mofongo, or Bahamian-style conch salad.

But you haven't really lived until you've sampled the Indian-influenced fare from the island of Trinidad and Tobago. Many dishes have "funny" names, use exotic ingredients, and offer plenty of curry and spice.

From doubles and pholourie to aloo pie and roti, your new favorite dishes await you at five of our favorite spots for excellent Trini food in Broward County:

5. Priya's Roti Shop
8007 W. Sample Road, Coral Springs. Call 954-345-0559, or visit priyasfoods.com.
Dish not to miss: curry conch roti
A few words of advice for anyone visiting Priya's: Get there early. The chef-owner makes everything from scratch each day, which means when the ingredients run out, you're out of luck until tomorrow. Among the most popular dishes is shrimp roti, which customers love to eat along with the chef's homemade pepper sauce. But if you spot curry conch roti on the menu, get that instead. Tender nubs of conch meat practically melt in your mouth, smothered in a mild, spice-flecked curry sauce that pairs well with a stewed potato side. Both taste even better when scooped up with handfuls of fresh-made, steaming-hot dhal puri roti. 

4. Cricket Roti Shop
1601 N. State Road 7, Lauderhill. Call 954-485-0606, or visit their Facebook page.
Dish not to miss: buss-up-shot
Convenience store food is never fresh, but this is one restaurant — located inside the BP station store at the corner of State Road 7 and NW 16th Street in Lauderhill — that puts all other in-store gas station food to shame. The Cricket Roti chef works out of a tiny kitchen at the back of the shop offering a full menu of Trini food from roti and doubles to aloo pie and pholourie. Go ahead and order the goat or chicken roti and ask for the Indian-style paratha on the side. Also known to native islanders as "buss-up-shot," it's one of the various types of roti-style flatbread available in Trinidad and Tobago, named because it has the look and texture of a torn or "busted-up" T-shirt. The paratha roti is made with ghee and arrives steaming hot and fresh from the tava pan, all chewy and buttery-rich, oil seeping into the creases of the usual Trini wax paper wrap. If you're taking it to go, the woman at the counter will stuff it into a tiny brown bag. Lucky for you, this is one brown bag item that's perfectly legal to consume while driving. 

3. Singh's Roti Delight
4244 N. State Road 7, Lauderdale Lakes. Call 954-735-4686, or visit singhsrotidelight.com.
Dish not to miss: bake and shark 
If you consider yourself an adventurous foodie, having bake and shark at Trinidad's Maracas Bay should be high up on your list of things worth eating. Of course, you can get a pretty solid version right here in Lauderdale Lakes at Singh's. The menu doesn't disappoint when it comes to Trini food; the small eatery offers a good range of affordable appetizers like aloo pie, pholourie, doubles, and — the lesser known dish — bake and shark. The classic street food is sold across the island, a fried flatbread pocket filled with pieces of battered and fried black-tip shark. At Singh's, it's topped with lettuce, coleslaw, tomatoes, and a lemony mayo-like dressing. If you find the shark a little too fishy, wash it all down with a housemade sorrel juice or peanut punch. A side serving of pholourie will do nicely, too — small, fried, spiced split-pea dough balls served with the house sweet chutney and spicy pepper sauces.

2. Joy's Roti Delight
1235 N. State Road 7, Lauderhill. Call 954-587-7700, or visit joysrotidelight.com.
Dish not to miss: black pudding
Every Friday Joy's Roti Delight has something special on the menu: black pudding. No dessert, it's basically congealed pig fat, blood, and liver (or sometimes cow), usually mixed with a binder like oatmeal or rice and flavored with a number of spices including chive, celery, pimento, onions, thyme, and chadon beni (a popular Trini spice also known as culantro). From there, it's stuffed into a pork casing and served in thick slices that can be eaten alone or with dinner-roll-like hops bread. The restaurant is also known for its Sunday meals, everything from coconut bake and tomato choka (a spicy dish of roasted tomatoes and scotch bonnet peppers) to smoked herring. They also have an excellent dhalpuri, roti with a stuffing of ground yellow split peas or potatoes seasoned with cumin, garlic, and pepper.

1. Ali's Roti Shop
303 S. State Road 7, Plantation. Call 954-533-6017.
Dish not to miss: doubles
If you know Trini food, you know the $1 doubles at Ali's in Plantation can't be beat. A popular Trini snack food often eaten for breakfast, doubles are basically a sandwich prepared with bara, a flatbread made of flour, baking powder, salt, and turmeric that's shaped into thick discs and deep-fried. Each bara is filled with channa, or curry-stewed chick peas, which can be topped with a variety of offerings from mango or sliced cucumber to a spicy slaw doused in the island's hot pepper sauce. If you're feeling adventurous, ask for some of the house tamarind sauce, too — you won't be disappointed. Just be sure to check the menu before you go; the restaurant is closed on Monday and there's no roti served on Sunday.

Nicole Danna is a food writer covering Broward and Palm Beach counties. To get the latest in food and drink news in South Florida, follow her @SoFloNicole or find her latest food pics on the BPB New Times Food & Drink Instagram.