Tobago Curried Coconut Crab With Coconut Dumplings
One of the best things about being on a small island like Tobago is being able to take advantage of all the fresh ingredients available. It is all very local, either from Tobago itself, or fresh off the ferry from Trinidad. So make sure you try Curried Coconut Crab with Coconut Dumplings, which is the national dish of Tobago.
It is easy whilst staying at Ohana to forget which day is which, as each day starts and ends with paradise! However, when Rena comes in with a whole bunch of the local blue crabs, all still alive and tied up with raffia, we always know it is saturday! It is a saturday thing at Ohana, probably because it is the best day to buy them at the Scarborough market, hence Rena’s early morning market detour. 
If you are especially nice to Rena, she may pass on her secret recipe. I usually like lots and lots of gravy. And for those who think eating fresh crab is a lot of work, for very little reward, ask Rena to throw in some fresh shrimps.
The coconut curried sauce is delicious, mildly spicy, and full of the local herbs. The tiny dumplings have fresh grated coconut included in the mixture, helping with the glycaemic index for all those worried about their waistlines! Whilst the local vegetables that come with it, yams, eddoes, green bananas, cassava, dasheen are an adventure in themselves. Dip the vegetables in the sauce and enjoy a delicious feast.
Be prepared to get down and dirty as you will get covered in crab stuff, and getting clean afterwards, will of course entail a swim in the sea, but it is all so worth it!
As well as crab, fish is obviously plentiful on the island, and it may well be that you will not recognise some of the names – and when Rena says you are having dolphin for dinner, it is definitely not ‘Flipper’ but a different type of local fish. I am learning myself, which ones are which, so these will feature in further posts. 
And if you take a boat trip you may be lucky to see flying fish following your boat; They are a beautiful navy blue and silver colour, and it really seems like they fly over the water. Tobago is full of flying fish lately, so much so that plentiful amounts are being exported to Barbados as it is their national delicacy. A local fisherman told me that they like clean water, and were moving down to Tobago for that reason.
Get Rena to fry some up for you, and remember to drizzle some fresh lime juice over them! 
The vegetables in Tobago taste like you remember them as a child, and you enjoy them more for that reason. I love the carrots and cucumber when I am there, yet wouldn’t go out of my way to eat them in Europe. Try a simple salad of cucumber, lettuce, shadow benne (a delicious local coriander) with a lime vinaigrette sauce and see what I mean ; the flavours are fresh pure and distinctive.
We have our special places to buy the best fish, meat and vegetables, and Rena will either tell you where to go, or if like some of our guests, you would prefer Rena to look after all of this for you, then please let us know.
I promise you – when Rena rings that bell to summon you for a meal, that bell can become quite Pavlovian. Bell = delicious meals – not hard to get used to!
