Taste of Trinidad delivered to your door: review of The Calabash Tree

And for cafe and restaurant owners, they’ve been thrown into an uncertain future having to close their doors to custom to limit the spread of the disease.

Thankfully for our rumbling stomachs, some of them have ramped up their delivery options to keep people well fed in lockdown.

Washington-based The Calabash Tree is one of the local businesses to branch into delivery in response to the crisis and it’s bringing the heat of Trinidad & Tobago to your door.

Tired of my own cooking already, I ordered from its Saturday night liming menu (a colloquial Caribbean term for hanging out) which is available to NE37, NE38, DH4 and SR4 postcodes, but you can request other drop offs.

A reflection of Trinidadian culture, the food is a melting pot of flavours that’s a mash-up of West African, East Indian, Spanish and French influences.

It’s a rich blend that chef Ryan McVay was raised on thanks to his mum’s Trinidadian roots, which he now brings to the North East with his Calabash Tree venture (named after a plant that thrives in hotter climes) which, in none coronavirus times, operates as a street food stall for festivals, functions and private dining.

The Saturday night liming menu changes depending on the ingredients available and we put in an order for jerk pulled brisket with roti and slaw (£7), red lentil coconut dhal with rice and peas (£6) and crispy curried chicken goujons and fries (£5).

It’s free delivery with orders over £20, or £2 under that, and it’s a contact-free payment online with social distancing on delivery.

In times of lockdown a food delivery has become a real event and we were practically stood at the window, like a dog waiting for its owner to arrive home, ten minutes before our delivery slot.

Trinidadian cuisine doesn’t do things by half: it’s loaded with flavour and was well worth the wait.

Ryan gets his spices imported from the Motherland which gives his cooking a real kick. As such, humble fried chicken was given some oomph with a curried coating and we devoured them as a starter.

Next, the coconut dhal was a thick and creamy affair, loaded with texture, that proved a real comfort food on a cold night in lockdown.

The real show-stopper, however, which fell apart beautifully, was the brisket. It retained plenty of its natural flavour, but I enjoyed smothering it in the moreish slaw every other bite as well.

There’s hints of African sauce and Indian curries in these Trinidadian dishes, but it’s not as heavy as that style of cooking often can be and it’s more lip-tingling than eye-wateringly hot. If only we could enjoy it on a beach somewhere with a rum punch in hand. Until then, this is a totally tropical taste to tantalise your tastebuds on Saturday nights in lockdown.

For a round-up of other businesses in Sunderland and the surrounding areas doing take-away or delivery during lockdown see here.

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