Trinciti Roti Shop’s Famous Bake and Shark
photos courtesy of Shanida Carter
written by Shanida Carter
My 9-year-old daughter has been begging me to try bake and shark ever since she saw Andrew Zimmern crown it the best sandwich he’s ever eaten on his popular Travel Channel show “Bizarre Eats.” Of course, I have the Trinidad episode recorded on my DVR. She’s seen the photos of me holding the sandwich up and smiling in Maracas Bay in Trinidad before she was born. Then, she saw a recent Food Insider video tweet of a Trinidadian who brought a friend to Trinciti Roti Shop in Queens, New York to try the bake and shark. The friend concurred that the sandwich was amazing. That video put my daughter’s plea to go to Triniciti in overdrive so she could taste the sandwich for herself. It was a reasonable request given that we are not traveling and there isn’t much for the kids to do during the current coronavirus pandemic.
Many of our children are growing up in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and other nations without setting foot on West Indian ground. The cultural connections are largely kept through music, dance, carnival, and food. Obtaining a bake and shark for my daughter became more than just a mission for a great tasting sandwich. It was part of my efforts to help my children identify with their West Indian roots.
Bake and shark
Bake and shark includes a piece of fried and seasoned shark meat in between fried flatbread (called bake) with an assortment of toppings from lettuce, tomatoes, coleslaw and pineapples to tamarind sauce, mustard, ketchup, or mayo. It’s classic street food in Trinidad. Perhaps the most famous, and most beautiful place to get bake and shark is at Richard's in Maracas Bay. However, the treat is not readily available at any of our local Caribbean spots in New Jersey. My husband agreed that a road trip to New York for bake and shark would be a perfect pandemic Saturday family outing. Plus, I had to see for myself if the bake and shark was comparable to Richard’s as some claimed in the video on Twitter.
[Additional Read: One Trinidadian Woman’s Story of Breast Cancer Survivorship Through Baking]
I put in our Trinciti order online an hour before arriving with my preferred toppings and a plain shark sandwich for my daughter. It would take about an hour to get there from my home in New Jersey to South Ozone Park, Queens. I left my daughter in the car with her brother and father so I could pick up the food inside. Upon arrival, the line was wrapped around the corner of the building. I didn’t think that would be an issue because I ordered ahead, but when I got inside, there were several others who also ordered ahead and were waiting for their eats.
I knew then that I’d be there for a while. The scent of oxtail, curry goat, and doubles wafted through the restaurant and smelled amazing. My anticipation increased exponentially. I learned that there was a couple from Manhattan and a man who also made the trek from New Jersey just for the food. Nearly an hour later, I finally had the bake and shark in hand.
When I returned to my car, I handed a sandwich to my daughter and instructed her to wait until I whipped out my smartphone. There’s no way the big taste could wait another hour until we arrived back home. She opened the wrapping to see most of the traditional fixings piled on. I thought her initial reaction would have been the same as with many other sandwiches she has tried in the past. She doesn’t care for toppings but she surprised me. She didn’t pick them off. She wanted to try the sandwich exactly the way it was. It did surprise me that each of the three sandwiches I custom ordered were made the exact same way but then I remembered that business was super busy that day. I’m glad my requested modifications were not made.
She counted down from 3 to 1 and took a bite. It seemed like she was chewing forever, and she flapped her hand near her mouth signaling spiciness. She declared that it was delicious, toppings and all, which was a shock coming from my Jersey-born-and-raised 9-year-old who usually wants pizza and mac and cheese. I realized in that moment when she took her first bites that the sandwich meant so much more than just food.
It felt like a rite of passage. I may have been more excited than she was as I tried to hold my smartphone camera steady. This was my way of connecting her to her rich West Indian heritage. This was her way of verifying her Caribbean roots. I still can’t get her to try sorrel or sea moss or even something as benign as a mild beef patty, but she gobbled up that bake and shark. While we may not be able to travel, she literally got a taste of the ocean, and the island she has yet to visit, in that gooey, sloppy, delightfully delectable sandwich.
It took two hours roundtrip from New Jersey to Queens then another hour on line at the restaurant to finally get a hold of the sandwich but it was totally worth it. Hopefully, next time, my daughter and I will enjoy it together at the beach in Maracas Bay. If we need a taste right away, we know where to go.
