Eating in Princes Town is a pilgrimage. This is where doubles was invented — on a freight bicycle, out of a pigtail bucket, in 1936. Every doubles you've ever eaten started here. Order accordingly.
Published by LocalAxys Editorial Team ·
Eating in Princes Town is a pilgrimage. This is where doubles was invented — on a freight bicycle, out of a pigtail bucket, in 1936. Every doubles you've ever eaten started here. Order accordingly.
The birthplace
The story is worth repeating at the counter: Emamool "Mamoo" Deen and his wife Raheman Rasulan Deen sold curried channa on fried bara to estate workers, and the customers asked for the bara doubled up. That was it. That was the invention of the national dish.
Princes Town's doubles vendors work in that lineage. The Ali family name is still on doubles across the south — the institutes, as the locals call the family operations. Eating doubles in Princes Town isn't just breakfast. It's eating at the source.
Steffie's: the caraili doubles
On the Naparima Mayaro Road, Steffie's Doubles does something you won't find everywhere: caraili doubles — doubles topped with bitter melon (caraili), the bitter green that Trinis swear by for health. It's a Princes Town specialty worth the trip on its own: the bitterness of the caraili against the savory channa and the sweet tamarind is a combination that shouldn't work and absolutely does.
The market
Princes Town is the market town for a huge stretch of south Trinidad, and the market shows it: produce from the surrounding farmland, picked that morning — dasheen, cassava, plantain, citrus, vegetables — plus spice vendors, fish sellers, and prepared-food stalls doing a brisk trade. Go in the morning. Bring cash. The shopkeeper probably knows half the customers by name.
The full menu
Beyond doubles, the town runs the southern food playbook:
Roti shops — dhalpuri and paratha, curry chicken, goat, beef, shrimp, pumpkin and bodi.
Pholourie, saheena, aloo pie — the fried-snack trinity, with tamarind chutney.
Corn soup — the thick, peppery kind.
Sweets — kurma, barfi, gulab jamoon, jalebi at the Indian sweets shops, busiest around Divali.
The countryside table
The farms around Princes Town are still working farms, and the food shows it. This is provision country — ground provisions, fresh vegetables, fruit in season. The distance from the field to your plate is short, and you can taste it.
How to eat in Princes Town
Start with doubles. You're at the birthplace. It's mandatory.
Try the caraili doubles at Steffie's. Bitter is the point.
Market in the morning, when the produce is freshest.
"Slight pepper" is respected everywhere in Trinidad, and Princes Town is no exception.
Princes Town invented the national dish and then went back to work. The town isn't precious about it — but you should be. Eat the doubles where doubles was born.