- You can tell people who've grown up with this
when they say plantain as opposed to the incorrect
pronunciation plantain. - Plantain.
- I don't know what that is. - To be clear.
- We don't know what that is. (laughs)
- Hi, I'm Nicholette and I'm representing Trinidad. Bop bop!
- Hi, I'm Nneka and I'm representing Jamaica.
- I'm Anthony and I'm from South Trinedad and Tebago.
- I'm Kat. I'm from Kingston, Jamaica.
- So, I was born in Trinidad.
I stayed there for two and a half years,
and I moved to Brooklyn, and that's where I grew up.
- I was born in Florida, United States,
and I moved to Jamaica when I was young.
And I've been back and forth ever since.
- I actually moved from Trinidad in 2004.
- I grew up all my life in Kingston
and just traveled a bunch 'cause I have
a lot of family, like in Florida, most Jamaicans do.
- As far as Jamaican snacks, they are very similar.
- They're pretty interchangeable, you know you
have them growing up when you're in high school.
- There are some that I haven't had though,
I'm excited to see what this is about.
- Yeah, I'm excited to try some of these snacks.
Drink sorrel, sorrel is like Christmas, ginger beer is also
a similar beverage, ya know. - Yeah, very similar.
- So I just got this National Spice Bun.
This is very exciting, because it's kind of a staple
in Jamaican households. - Okay.
- The flavors are kinda very homey, very familiar,
kinda the flavors that your mom cooks with.
The smells that you smell at home,
it's kind of like a warm hug of a snack.
- I'm excited about that, I've never had bun before.
- Smells like my childhood, like definitely.
- It's like a spicy bun.
- Yeah, like nutmeg, allspice.
- [Anthony] Yeah, yeah.
- It's kind of like a dessert bun. You know?
But, people eat it like a meal, like I remember
growing up if you never had a lot
of lunch money, - Yeah.
- you get a bun and cheese and it's like very filling.
- So we have some fried plantains here.
This is classic I'm sure you know if you're
- Yeah. - from a Caribbean household.
I mean, literally it's mandatory.
- Exactly.
- This to me, reminds me of Sunday lunch, you know?
Water crystal, callaloo, rice, stewed chicken,
every Sunday, you know?
- This one is lookin' all right.
- Oh yeah let's go.
You do it. - Yeah, okay okay.
- Enjoy. We're just saying Jamaica, full of joy.
(laughing)
- Mmmm.
- It's good. It's a good reaction.
- Wow, I didn't know what to expect, but this is good.
- Right? The texture. - Mm-hmm.
- The bun is good, it really reminds me of a sweet bun
that we used to make in Trinidad.
- So in Trinidad, we have something called sweet bread.
It's kinda similar. They use, like raisins and fruits,
but it has a similar texture, similar taste to it.
- Oh cool. - Yeah.
I don't know we might have to kill this.
(laughing)
- This is good plantain. - [Nicholette] Yes, it's good.
- It's good. - What do you normally
eat plantain with?
Like, type of dish. - Anything!
(laughs) - True, true.
- By itself, for breakfast, for lunch, for dinner.
It's like around the clock, you can count
on plantain to be there for you.
- Plantain bae.
- So, like, this wouldn't be my choice of plantain.
- Why not?
- Because it is not ripe enough for me.
I would leave it alone like for extra week,
- Yeah. - and make the skin get
blacker and then I'd fry it.
- Okay so, I have this weird thing
where I tend to not combine sweet with savory.
So, while I know that everyone eats plantain
all the time, but I do not.
But I also respect and appreciate the tradition.
- Yeah.
- And that's why I'm eating it right now.
- Interesting. - Because I'm not
gonna come on here as a Jamaican and not eat plantain.
(laughter) - I respect it.
- In front of me I have some tamarind ball, I'm so excited
I love anything Tamarind, I like bittersweet flavors.
This is a classic, I'm very excited,
and I'm excited for you to try.
- What's interesting about this package
of Tamarind Balls, is if you look closely it says,
"Product of Jamaica". - It says Jamaica, it does.
- Anyway. (laughs)
- I have the coconut drops. I don't eat coconut drops.
I drink coconut water, but I don't really consume,
I think it's like too chewy for me.
- I gotcha.
- So it's like a texture thing.
- And what's interesting about these is
that nothing about this looks like a drop.
- So that's interesting. - It doesn't.
- They're always kind of homemade looking, and I
just see them, you know, in gas stations,
pharmacies, stuff like that. - [Nicholette] Yeah, yeah.
- And you never see them mass-produced,
- Yeah. - It's always like,
kind of in this way. - Yeah.
- Swap.
- [Kat] Alright I love tamarind balls.
- Let's go.
- Alright let's go. - Coconut drops.
- Now is this spicy?
Because some of them you can have them
they put like you know a hint of like heat in it.
- No spice at all, in terms of heat.
I didn't know they came spicy, that's interesting.
- Those are good.
- But it's super sweet and kinda like tacky.
The tricky thing is though what to do
with the pits when you're done.
- Yeah, I'm holding them in my mouth.
(mumbles)
- Right away I got three seeds in one.
Sometimes you don't get any seeds in them.
That one had three, and it's just sugar
and tamarind and it's really good.
I suggest sit and just box one of these,
shell one of these one time, as a kid.
But, it's really good, delicious.
- Alright so we're about to get into these drops here.
Oh, okay so it does remind me of sugar cake.
Sugar cake is like a snack in Trinidad and we have it,
the coconut is shredded but it's usually
in like a circular ball.
- It's pretty sweet, crunchy, it reminds me of sugar cake.
Back in school, where we were growing up we would have
the shops outside of our school, and it was just something
to munch on throughout the day.
- It's nice when the different cultures
have different names for the same thing.
- So this, here we have the caramel biscuits.
This I remember, again we used to go to the market a lot,
and this was the only thing that my stepfather ever wanted.
He was like, "Alright get me a caramel,
get me two packs if you want."
They usually come in this four pack size.
It's really good like a nice
chocolate covered wafer basically.
- I've never had this before and I'm really excited
because I do enjoy a wafer. - [Nicholette] Mmmm.
- Also, with caramel, that's definitely a plus.
So, I'm definitely excited about trying this.
- Sorrel, I have candied sorrel.
Sorrel is a flower that we use in Jamaica
to make a holiday drink called sorrel.
Usually I'd add ginger or rum like
white rum, red rum if you want.
And I've never actually seen this or had this.
I don't know if my Jamaican card's going to
get revoked, but I've never seen this before.
- [Anthony] Love sorrel. - Have you ever seen this?
- Not this pack at all.
- Candied yeah, and it says a better snack.
Yeah, we're gonna be drinking it.
So, the version I know of it is a drink,
is a beverage, I don't know it like this.
(lighting strike)
- Oh they are individually wrapped. Okay.
- This is cute.
- Yeah.
- Oh, okay. I really like it.
(laughs)
- You can that tell when they were making it,
it like drizzled on. - Yeah, exactly.
- It's beautifully crafted caramel.
- This is great presentation here.
Okay, I'm going to be honest and say
I think these might be a little bit stale.
(record scratch)
What do you think?
- I think they tend to be like this.
- [Nneka] This is them. - Mhmm.
- Oh no, I'm sorry. (laughs)
That was horribly offensive.
- No, it's fine. It's fine.
- Because I didn't get that crunch
that I was expecting - Yeah, yeah.
- Because for the, you know, wafer part, so
I wasn't sure but okay I trust you.
But it's good.
- Okay I carry that to work. (mumbles)
I would prefer a little more wafer than caramel.
It's like Kit Kat not Twix. - Kit Kat.
- It's like Kit Kat.
- Interesting this says Scotland on it.
- Ooh. (laughs)
- Wow, I didn't know that, I thought this was direct
from Trinidad. The more you know.
I never notice, you know, you mention Scotland.
I never notice that there was like
a white boy on the packaging.
Oh, we just straight up took Scotland's
snack and made it our own.
- I mean sometimes it be like that.
- Exactly.
- Sorrel. Rum in this? (laughs)
Gonna drink the sorrel?
- Yeah. I drink the sorrel. - Cheers,
- Cheers. - Bless up.
- Yeah.
That's good. I like it.
- I would drink this daily, like how people
in LA drink kombucha, this is like Jamaica kombucha.
- That's good.
- This is good.
- I like it.
It has that nice slight bite of ginger at the end.
Also, the color is nice, robust red.
- Yeah, I'm inspired, I think I'm about
to go home and make some sorrel.
- You know there's this place, Tender Greens
actually have sorrel. - Sorrel?
But they call it Jamaica, yeah?
- Yeah, hibiscus.
- Hibiscus, yeah.
- You know I just figured out that that's what it was
is hibiscus leaves. - Oh, yeah yeah.
I've been to Mexico a couple times and they call it Jamaica
which is really cute because, - [Nicholette] Yeah.
- you know we drink it in Jamaica.
- So this was really fun, I enjoyed the opportunity to
try some Jamaican snacks and to relive some Trinis snacks.
I would say my favorite would be the sorrel.
Oh, I don't know, it's tied between the bun
and the sorrel, 'cause those were on point.
- Definitely a tight race. - Yeah.
- I would say that my favorite, the bun was really good.
- [Nicholette] It was very fluffy, and
just airy, - Yeah.
- [Nicholette] I really liked that about it.
- Great job bun makers.
- I would say my favorite thing was the tamarind ball,
and I mean it's a close tie with the tamarind ball
and the bun. What about you?
- Wanna say, my favorite was actually bun.
- The bun?
- Yeah, it remind me of sweet bun
growing up in Trinidad, and sorrel.
It's nice to reminisce you know?
- [Kat] Yeah, it's nice. - Back in the day the snacks,
especially you know, it brings back memories
you know, childhood memories with friends.
- Yeah, it's great. I enjoyed that thoroughly.
(laughs)
(playful guitar music)