Vidya Singh

With its heat and herbaceousness, the cuisine of the Caribbean countries of Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana is sure to make your mouth (and maybe your eyes) water. From stuffed flatbreads to heavily spiced curries and stir-fried rice and noodles, the cuisine of the region is unique in its global nature, with flavors from India, Africa, China and Indigenous populations. New Yorkers don’t need to hop on a plane to the islands to experience the food. They can go to Little Guyana, a Queens neighborhood with casual eateries dishing out authentic Caribbean cuisine. RECOMMENDED: These are Jaeki Cho’s best bites of the year

For 30 years, customers have flocked to Singh’s for the Trinidadian-style roti known as the “buss up shut.” The foot-wide flatbread is clapped with two spatulas (but some brave souls use bare hands) until it resembles a busted up shirt, hence the name. Light, flaky, and buttery, the roti is often served alongside a curry, or a stewed meat dish like oxtails, the meat from the tail of cattle. I tried the roti with some vegetarian options: pumpkin talkari and curry mango. Talkari is a simple dish made with sauteed cubes of pumpkin, garlic, onion, cumin, and scotch bonnet peppers. The curry mango is made with half-ripe mango slices fried in curry-infused oil. The combination is lick-your-fingers good.

Named after a classic restaurant in Guyana’s capital, Georgetown, Hack’s popular barbecued chicken only graces the menu between Thursday and Sunday. The chicken is marinated for at least 24 hours in a secret sauce– a family recipe the manager would not divulge. Whatever the ingredients, people come from all parts of New York City to try the chicken and its side dishes. Customers can choose from potato salad, fried rice, chow mein, and more. Hack’s offers a full Chinese menu, which illustrates how heavily Guyanese cuisine was influenced by people who emigrated from China beginning in the 19th century.

TrinCiti’s doubles have a loyal following, with some fans waiting in line for up to an hour for their fix. The doubles, a deal at $2.50 each, are topped with kuchela (green mango relish), chadon beni sauce (a popular condiment made of culantro, garlic, lime, and pepper), and tamarind sauce. The oxtail and shrimp doubles are popular, as are the curry dishes. I tried the curry duck, which was tender and exploded with spice thanks to a common Caribbean cooking technique, bounjay. The term stems from bhunao, an Indian cooking style that involves stir frying and sauteing ingredients until they caramelize. After the duck is fried in a mixture of cilantro, celery, garlic, hot pepper, masala, curry powder and other spices, it is simmered for at least two hours. At $17, you better believe I’ll be back for more.

Anil’s is a comfy eatery with a warm atmosphere, popular for doubles but also for aloo pie, seasoned mashed potatoes in fried dough. Some people add channa to the dish, but I prefer a simple aloo pie with some hot sauce. Anil’s uses a traditional Trinidadian hot sauce, a blend of habanero, mango, onions, garlic and lime. The restaurant also serves up amazing desserts, like sweet rice, a rice pudding cooked with ginger, spices, and condensed and evaporated milk often served at special occasions.

This casual Trinidadian eatery is popular for roti, stew chicken, and curry goat. Customers love the large portions and the dozens of dishes to choose from. Their fried small bites are special, especially when made fresh. The egg ball, a hardboiled egg wrapped in seasoned cassava and fried, bursts with savory flavor even before being dunked into the tangy mango condiment known as sour. The real star for me was the pholourie, or split pea fritters, which were pillowy and spiced perfectly. Bonus: there are two other locations in the area.

This roti shop has been on the block for 20 years, and was one of the first to serve bake and shark, a popular Trinidadian dish of fried flatbread stuffed with fried shark meat. The restaurant has a cult following for its doubles, a Trinidadian street snack made of fried flatbread and channa, or chickpea curry. I tried one of the new offerings, bake and shrimp, a perfect fusion of Caribbean flavors. The flatbread is stuffed with fried butterflied shrimp and topped with a plethora of sauces (oyster, garlic, pepper, tamarind, and mango sauce), along with fresh pineapple, grated mango, cucumbers, tomatoes, shredded cabbage, lettuce and honey mustard, making it impossible to put down.

Sybil’s owner Viburt Bernard learned how to bake at his uncle’s restaurant before emigrating from Guyana to New York in the early 1970s. By the late 1980s, Bernard opened two bakeries of his own in Queens. The Liberty Avenue location is a neighborhood institution with loyal customers lining up every day of the year (even on Thanksgiving and Christmas). Small bites like the Guyanese chicken patties are best-sellers. The muffin-shaped pastry is filled with a savory mixture of minced chicken and vegetables. Other popular items include pine tarts, a pastry pocket stuffed with pineapple jam and cheese rolls, pastry rolls filled with spicy cheese.