Half of a doubles with tamarind and other things in Guyana

Image from Grueslayer @Wikipedia,  (CC BY-SA 4.0 )

I see the sign on the cart "Doubles $200" at the busy corner of the road and I think to hell with it, I am going to stand and eat one and I don't care how much mess I make on my mouth and hands and clothes.  I am not hungry , I am binge eating to deal with the dark clouds which are darker some days than others and which sometimes shift when I have food in my hand and mouth.

I like doubles. No, I love doubles and on a few visits to Trinidad, have eaten doubles for breakfast, lunch and dinner on some days. 

The cart is small. The man who is selling the doubles is dressed in white, wears a white cap. The channa curry and the pepper and the tamarind and the mango achar and the cucumber are in a glass case. The bara is in a styrofoam box.

"I have to get a bigger cart.. I coming out a week now, sales good"

Young man. He is selling to a young Cuban guy. I know in Trinidad there is a fascinating rythmn of the hands - paper, two bara, channa, small spoon with all of the condiments, roll and turn the paper.. put in a paper bag, or pass on to customer with a serviette. With appropriate breaks to collect money or make change or one woman who I used to buy from a lot - put the money deh.. and she would watch as you take your change.

I  wonder if the young Cuban had ever seen Doubles before, but I am too muddled to open conversation  The man selling is taking his time.  Opening the glass case, closing it back again.

The bara are large, not so oily.  He lays one bara on the paper and then puts the channa and the condiments, closes the glass case, opens the box, takes out the other bara to cover, and then wraps it. And stuffs into the small brown paper bag.

 I have my two hundred dollars in my hand. Young Cuban guy sees the two hundred dollars and asks me , with two fingers.. if it is two. I say, si, dos cientos and the guy smiles. He walks off with the paper bag, the napkin falls on the road but I am not feeling like calling out or so to let him know.

Bandaniya
The young seller is glad to chat. The double sellers I met in Trinidad.. either did not talk much, or talked as fast as their hands moved.  He liked doubles , but he never learned to make in Trinidad. The bara and channa curry are his own recipe. The channa is rich, dry like how I would make at home.. not like the long water where the channa swims a lil bit and I have a hard time with eating because the gravy runs down my chin.

We gaff about the bandaniya(chadobeni/cilantro).

"Dat ting strong, I aint sure if Guyanese gun like it.. and is a $100 fuh lil bit.. I know I should put more in the cucumber...a man tell me he will bring a plant fuh me"

I ask if it not in the channa curry. "Nah.. I didn't know you could put it in curry.. "

Eating on the road
And so I stand up and eat on the road corner. "Man, this corner not nice to eat.. people buying and taking away only"

He stop, we chat, and then he resume making the doubles for me.  "In Trinidad, is only doubles and sahina and so for breakfast food.. here we got egg ball, cassava ball, all kind of thing.. "

He seemed uncertain about how doubles would go down.


"I was in the market.. but constab tell me nicely that I can't be there.. they show me a spot.. but the spot was dirty.. I couldn't sell there.. i have to get a different cart to walk and sell.. I get good business though.. people coming up to by even when the city constab telling me to move.. "

I wonder if my eating would help with customers. People are looking at him, looking at me and moving past.

"You could get a water from aunty over deh yuh know.. " he said pointing to the woman with the cool down cart. Something about how the man doing referrals at the corner... the one napkin was not enough to clean up the mess on my mouth and hands.

"I know, i should get lil water.. ".

Half a doubles

While I am eating, a man, barefoot, dirty clothes, dirty skin.. asks the doubles man for a plastic bag.
"You want a big one or small one..".
"a small one.. "

The man with the dirty clothes seems to be keeping the area clean, putting rubbish in the plastic bag.

He comes up, gives the doubles man $80.  "Gie me a half... put nuff cucumber. " .. he moves away while doubles man prepares the half doubles.

"Every day he buy from me. He like de cucumber. "

 Half is one bara, with the same channa curry, condiments etc and wrapped up in the paper. Is not quite a 'single'



Tamarind
My belly feel full after the one doubles. The bara are not oily. I want another one. I ask for one.. 'put more tamarind'..  I take it away though.. 'to go" in Trini talk


"Yeah, some girls just buy .. they ask for nuff tamarind'


I can't remember tamarind sauce being part of the doubles condiment in Trinidad. I remember coconut, golden apple curry or pickle,  mango kuchela, bandaniya, cucumber, pepper .


I walk around the market and then buy turmeric juice to wash down the doubles.  In Trini it was Solo apple J.

I keep looking for Trini doubles in Guyana, but they don't taste the same. The woman in Berbice packs her own in a huge bara with the channa and achar. The other vendor does not have enough channa in the doubles.

But in the man with the huge bara, the tamarind and so.. make me think that in looking for one thing, I might be missing out on something else.. that  we would get a Guyana doubles. with tamarind and other kind of pickles . and if he move his cart near to a cane juice stand or turmeric juice., then no need for apple j.

I hope I find him again. I hope he gets more bandaniya and that he is successful

As I walk away.. I hear another man wheeling a cart .. selling puri and shark and soursop juice.