Ghosts of Our Culinary Past - Legacy of Our People
Filed Under thoughts | Posted on December 14, 2006
Several days ago, the UK based Trini food blogger Can Cook Must Cook posted on “Those Disappearing Pleasures”, the snacks of her childhood which no longer appear on Trini shop shelves. Out of the names she called I could only recognize ‘rock cake’. Bellyful? Shaddock Candy? Kaser Balls? Wha dat?
This made me more than a little sad. Apparently many of these items fell out of favour as Trinidad grew into the heady rush of prosperity that was the oil boom of the 1970s. Our tastes turned outward and American advertising influences and shopping sprees took their toll on the local cornershop. Although there are still plenty traces of our culinary snack heritage, like aloo pies, tamarind balls, chip-chip and more, it also seems that there were many casualties. As fastfood grew as an option, less of these recipes were being made at home and passed on. And with the Sylvia Hunt cookbooks disappearing from the shelves as quickly as they appeared, amidst a royalty battle between her surviving relatives, those of us who may have wanted to learn about and prepare these dishes had no way of knowing they existed let alone how to recreate them.
(Sylvia Hunt was for lack of a better analogy the Julia Child of Trinidad, I have vague memories of watching her cooking show “At Home with Sylvia Hunt” and wanting to contact her P.O.Box for recipes, except I had no clue what a P.O. box was so I used to punch the P.O. box numbers onto the phone instead LOL!)
Anywayz, now that our economic boom has receded, double digit inflation is nipping at our pockets and we are all looking for more economical ways to prepare food I think more than ever we need to revisit the ghosts of our culinary past to restore some balance to our lives and national identities. I really wanna give these recipes a shot, and to share them with Trinis and the world alike. So if anyone has any of the below cookbooks in their possession and wants to make copies/scans I’d be more than obliged 
Wanted!:
HUNT, Sylvia - Menus for Festivals. (Port-of-Spain: Bank of Commerce Trust) 1989. Food. Nutrition. Festivals. Trinidad. A cookbook
HUNT, Sylvia - Sylvia Hunt’s Cooking: Proud Legacy of our People. (Cascade, Port-of-Spain: Superservice Printing Co) viii,58 pages pb, 1985. Food. Nutrition. Trinidad. A cookbook. LOC
HUNT, Sylvia - Sylvia Hunt?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s ?¢‚Ǩ?ìSweets:?¢‚Ǩ¬ù Proud Legacy of our People. (Port-of-Spain: Published by the Author) vi,37 pages, [ca 1985]. Food. Nutrition. Trinidad. A cookbook. LOC
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4 Responses to “Ghosts of Our Culinary Past - Legacy of Our People”
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You know Sylvia was a Bishop’s girl right? I used to watch her show on Tv all the time. I didn’t necessarily like all the stuff she made but I liked how she talked (sounded like a trini Julia Child, and I thought it was funny that she just was cooking in her dress and an old kitchen.
I know TTT shut down but what did they do with all their old footage of Calabash Alley and Sylvia’s show? Would they sell them to me or retape to DVD if I wrote a letter? Let me know Girl! I am pining!
no i didn’t know she was a Hilarian …
You have a better memory than me if you remember the things she made, I just remember the old kitchen and that she talked slow and looked in the camera lolz
No clue about TTT and that’s an excellent question about what became of their archives… sigh… this country… they are supposed to be part of a Caribbean wide media network know… good luck on selling/retaping to DVD… more likely they’ll laugh n steups
Hello TriniGourmet,
I happen to have Menus for Festivals and Daily Use (minus pg 86 which seems to have disappeared) and Sylvia Hunts Sweets. Would be willing to do a photocopy swap if you have Sylvia Hunt’s Cooking.
hi Petit Careme!!!
big fan of your site 
is it on permanent hiatus??
it’s so awesome of you to offer a photocopy swap but I still don’t have any of ms. hunt’s materials so i don’t know what to offer in return? is there anything else of interest I can use as an ethical bribe?