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This is Doubles 🇹🇹

@thisisdoubles

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Archiving doubles' beginnings and mapping its expansion across the diaspora. A place where purists and those open to change can learn from each other.

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5 days ago

How do they sell doubles by you?

In Brooklyn and Queens, New York, most Doubles are prepared in an assembly line, behind glass, next to curried meats and talkari. Alongside rice and stew chicken, goat rotis and fry bake, you order doubles any time of the day, and can add whatever meat to the top. They are wrapped flat, the sides pressed and folded like a sandwich would be wrapped, not flipped and twisted at the ends like in the motherland. The customers form their queue indoors and pay at a cash register.

Outside of Trinidad, I've only had doubles in NYC and once in Antigua where it was sold roadside under a shed.

I'd love to hear how doubles are sold wherever you live, to see the ways doubles culture has adapted to different environments.

📸 Thanks to @seanmfield for the pics from De Hot Pot, Brooklyn. by @thisisdoubles

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a month ago

Some sweet storytelling by @chefbrigetterj

Thank you for sharing 🥰 by @thisisdoubles

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a month ago

PART 2: What does the appropriation of Doubles, most recently by Hello Fresh, tell us about ourselves?

Trini pride is relatively new. As we learn to exist without external validation, I see Doubles as a symbol of Trinidadian people. by @thisisdoubles

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2 months ago

PART 1 Hello Fresh is selling a totally botched Doubles recipe. But are they solely to blame?

I posted the Hello Fresh recipe on @thisisdoubles. What is our part in this? Have we in some ways made room for our culture to be appropriated so often and so unapologetically?

I recognize Trinidadian cultural pride is young, and we are still recovering from the trauma of centuries of white supremacy. Understanding this might be a step forward. by @thisisdoubles

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2 months ago

What do we call this? Commodification? Appropriation? Gentrification? You tell me.

I have brayed over and over about calling Bara "Flatbread" and here is one of the consequences. @hellofreshuk, which has millions of subscribers, has included Doubles in their catalogue, profiting off of a culturally significant food because we handed it to them.

This is not a plea for gatekeeping, but a message to you in hope that you understand why it is important to learn our history, to appreciate the sociopolitics and meaning of heritage foods. A famously unethical European owned corporation is making money off of a blatant misrepresentation of a food that was created in the spirit of anti plantocracy— anticolonization and anticapitalism. Doubles means independence for the working class. Comeuppance for the formerly indentured. Food for all people.

But we like to geep geep too much. Take nothing seriously.

@hellofresh has reduced us to a (wrongly made) product, with "Greek style flatbread", capitalizing on decades of cultural pride and exchange. They are using our country's name and the the popularity of the food to sell whatever works for them. Doubles is trending. Caribbean food has become a new toy for western food business. And what do we Caribbean people do about it? Support! Take pics. Get excited. Sell out.

Look at the commodification of pizza and sushi and tacos as other examples. Caribbean food is not far behind in becoming a caricature. No depth. A forgotten story for the taking. Massuh day not done. by @thisisdoubles

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2 months ago

We are FED UP.

Every time I see an AI renderings of doubles a piece of me dies.

There are countless REAL doubles vendors, turning out hundreds if not thousands of doubles everyday. You can't find ONE picture of REAL doubles to post?

Social media is inundated with perfectly round, pita bread looking "bara" and decorated chickpeas being cosplayed as Doubles. There are cultural repercussions. We already have people thinking doubles is eaten like a sandwich. taken in Trinidad and Tobago by @thisisdoubles

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2 months ago

A Sunday Morning Gift from @daniellers11 🙏🏽

I was born in Tunapuna and lived between there and Trincity. Mamoo's is also my personal favorite spot. I LOVE coconut chutney on my doubles.

@daniellers11 order photographed here: medium regular pepper and medium roast, sweet sauce, chadon beni, coconut chutney, no kuchela or cucumber.

Keep sending me your doubles pics 😍 Sharing images of actual doubles in the midst of an Ai takeover of rendering Caribbean food and stories was the motivation for creating this page.

#truetrini #realdoubles #authenticcaribbeancuisine by @thisisdoubles

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2 months ago

Does the relationship between doubles and the natural environment ever cross your mind? What are your thoughts on spelt based bara?

Spelt is an ancient grain and cousin of the modern wheat we commonly see in baking today. It is a bit more nutritious and digestible.

Some chefs and specialized doubles makers have been testing alternatives to refined wheat for a range of reasons.

Spelt aligns with organic and lower input farming systems and requires less fertilization than wheat we commonly use for doubles. It is grown in Europe, which makes it an attractive option for doubles makers in the vicinity who are conscious about seasonality and quality of ingredients. The texture does differ, but from conversations I've had with those who use spelt in their bara, it still works.

📷 @youthful_jeunesse_ by @thisisdoubles

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2 months ago

Don't be stuck on Naps girls cookbook for Trini recipes. There are a lot of modern books with more intricate storytelling and photography (that don't put curry in the doubles chana) such as Caribe by @keshia.sakarah_ by @thisisdoubles

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3 months ago

The price of doubles is tied to it's cultural meaning.

Doubles was created to grant independence and dignity to individuals post indentureship, so that they would not have to endure disgraceful working conditions in the plantations and oil fields.

It has been commonly (and derogatively) referred to as "poor man" food, a title that I personally am proud of. Doubles was made by and for poor people as an act of community enrichment, radically breaking away from an imposed system of hierarchy.

When the price of doubles increases in Trinidad, we recognize the connection with the economy at large. Doubles is a marker of inflation, particularly since the major ingredients are imported.

When you find doubles abroad. The price is exponential in relation to Trini doubles prices. For many, it seems outrageous to pay US$3 (TT$21) for a doubles when in Trinidad on average they cost TT$6. I've heard of US$8.50 doubles in LA and US$13 in Easthampton, NY

I'd love if we could discuss these questions:

To you, does the higher priced doubles still carry the message of doubles as "poor man" food?

If you have a business selling doubles, when pricing, do you consider accessibility for the "poor man"? by @thisisdoubles

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3 months ago

I've been hard on Brooklyn doubles, and even wrote an article about it (link in bio)

I stand by what I said— that it is not the same as Trini doubles, and that NYC doubles is its own thing.

The longer I live in NY, the more I see value in the roti shops here, that even though the food does not taste like Trinidad, it still brings me comfort. I feel lucky to have so many options. When I'm too tired to cook trini food myself, I'm glad to have some semblance of home food nearby.

If I were craving taste and texture alone, which in the past I believe was the case, I would not be satisfied. But these days, I enjoy the early morning walk to D Hot Pot, before other businesses on Flatbush Avenue open, for a doubles while the channa still fresh and saucy. I enjoy being near to Prospect park to have a hot doubles on a bench under a tree. I enjoy being in the shop, ordering among others with versions of my accent only barely touched by foreign twang even though some of these people living here donkey years.

Eating doubles in Brooklyn is more about story telling than taste buds. taken in Flatbush , Brooklyn by @thisisdoubles

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4 months ago