In Les Coteaux, a sleepy village between hills in the south of the island, Monica Williams is deboning salted cod fish for buljol, a traditional Tobagonian breakfast dish with red and hot peppers, onion and tomatoes. Sitting on a bench under the corrugated tin roof, still cool from the early morning mist, she squeezes the flesh, starving it of any moisture, and gets onto grate the coconut for a flatbread bake.
On an island where life usually moves slowly, her pace is on par with the upbeat soca tunes blasting from a large speaker early on a Saturday morning. “We’ve been making these dishes for generations; my mother taught me how to cook this, and she learnt it from her mother,” Monica says, while instructing her husband to start the wood fire for the baking. It’s all hands on deck: Prince is on fire duties; their daughter is chopping veg; and I am grating homegrown cacao for the tea she is about to prepare.
