HEMISPHERESMAGAZINE.COM
•
DECEMBER 2012
115
TRINIDADANDTOBAGO
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THREE PERFECT DAYS
BEATGENERATION
The origins of soca
Regardless of whether you’ve shaken a tail feather
at Carnival, you’ve likely heard (perhaps in the
middle of a “Hot, Hot, Hot”–induced conga line on
a cruise ship) the energetic dance music known
as soca, which makes up the bulk of the festival’s
soundtrack. The style’s origins go back to the
late 1960s, when an artist named Lord Shorty
added Indian rhythms and instrumentation to
Trinidad mainstay calypso, dubbing the mixture
“
soca”—the
so
ul of
ca
lypso. His 1974 classic,
Endless Vibrations,
is recognized as the genre’s first
full-length album.
But nothing can be left alone in a place like
Trinidad, where cultural exchange is a matter of
course. Today, there are innumerable soca off-
shoots—rapso, ragga soca, chutney soca—which
incorporate other Caribbean influences. At Trini-
dad’s clubs, DJs generally don’t limit their palette
to one style, yet the end result is always the same.
“
It doesn’t matter who you are,” says a dancer at
Zen in Port of Spain, “your hips will move.”
Coast Road to Maracas Beach, a crescent
of perfect sand and swaying palms with
a picturesque mountain backdrop. Your
real destination, though, is
Richard’s Bake
and Shark
,
whose specialty is fried shark
served on fried bread (described by celeb-
rity chef AndrewZimmernas “the best fish
sandwich I’ve ever eaten”). The puffy bake
proves to be the ultimate vehicle for the
sauces you’ve chosen from the toppings
stand, and one bite is all it takes. You’re
hooked. TheMonkeyGod has been defied.
Back in Port of Spain, you make tracks
for the far less serene Tragarete Road,
home to the “panyard” of the Invaders
Steel Orchestra. The band is rehearsing a
dynamic routine for the upcoming Pan-
orama, the big steel pan festival preceding
Carnival. The Invaders take their music
very seriously—when you’ve heard them
rehearse the same complex five-second
phrase several times, you take that as your
cue to return to the hotel to refresh.
Dinner is at
Chaud Creole
,
a legendary
outpost of Creole cooking in the afflu-
ent St. Ann’s neighborhood. Chef Khalid
Mohammed’s gourmet take on oxtail
burnt-sugar stew, paired with his melt-in-
your-mouth breadfruit “oil down” (named
a er the process bywhich coconutmilk is
cooked into the fruit), makes you question
your fealty to the fry bake.
You consider checking out the action on
the Avenue, which will be hopping at this
hour, but good sense prevails. The ferry
leaves for Tobago around dawn.
DAY THREE
| There are two things open
for breakfast at thisungodlyhour: the fruit
bowl in your room and, to your delight, a
doubles stand just outside the hotel. At the
la er, you grab a few to go. Also close by:
the ferry terminal, fromwhichyouembark
on a two-and-a-half-hour voyage to the
port town of Scarborough, Tobago.
POINT OF REFLECTION
TheWaterloo Temple, a.k.a. the Temple in the Sea, on the Gulf of Paria
FAST TRACKS
Soca star K Rich
performs at Zen
