Coroni Swamp

Labor Day, June 19, 2012. Besides going to see the Maracas Waterfall... the tallest in Trinidad... I also went with Binh Meador and her family to the Coroni Swamp. So why would anyone go to a swamp on their holiday?

To ride in one of these spiffy boats and to see the birds, of course. In this case we're off to see a very specific variety of bird.

But first, let's enjoy the swamp. The Coroni swamp has almost no actual land but is made up almost entirely of Mangrove trees. These trees, in addition to being pretty weird looking with roots coming out of them at all spots and dropping down into the water, are one of the few plants that tolerate salt water and air. After some years they die and start land forming in what was all salt water. And they create a habitat that's suitable for birds, snakes, crabs and a bunch of other fun animals. So we cruise through the waterways, looking for and for the most part not seeing anything.

But never fear, our guide is there to point out the snakes dangling in the branches over our heads... You didn't see that one? We'll back up so you can see it better. See Binh? There's a six foot Boa Constrictor right over your head... What's wrong? You hate snakes? Sorry about that, Binh. Here take a look at these spider like crabs climbing up the Mangrove roots right next to the boat. Yes, a fun time was had by all. But seeing Binh cower in terror about the snakes wasn't we came there for. We came to see the birds.

Now as it turns out, the Coroni Swamp is a major habitat of the national bird of Trinidad. The Coat of Arms of the nation of Trinidad and Tobago (what do mean, your country doesn't have a coat of arms? And just one national bird? What kind of cheesy country do you live in?) features the national bird of Trinidad, the Scarlett Ibis, the national bird of Tobago, the Cocrico and the national bird of the Caribbean, the Hummingbird. We've come to see the Scarlett Ibis. But during the course of the cruise, we only see a couple. But after an hour and a half of cruising around the swamp seeing a few herons and osprey, our guide stops the boat and we wait. But not for long.

My poor little camera doesn't really do them justice but before long there are wave after wave of herons and Scarlett Ibis flocking to the trees on the far side of the water from us. Sometimes in twos and threes. Sometimes in dozens or more.

Before long, the trees across the swamp are covered with them. A good pair of binoculars or a solid telephoto lens would have helped here but still it was pretty impressive seeing all those bright red birds... they turn red from eating the crabs pretty much just like Georgia does... in flight.

Maracas Falls

As I mentioned before, I decided to go visit one of Trinidad's many waterfalls on my off day today... Labor Day. One of the most talked about is Maracas Falls. I've mentioned earlier one of the most popular beaches on the island is Maracas Beach which is a drop dead gorgeous beach. Well Maracas Falls has basically nothing whatever to do with Maracas Beach. The only way to get to the beach from the water falls is come back through Port of Spain. As I have come to expect, the drive started out with some pretty good road but eventually degenerated into "Am I still on a road?" mode. After a couple of wrong turns and getting vaguely lost and "Oh of course we can get my car and your truck past each other on this one lane road" moments, I eventually got to the trail head for the walk to the waterfalls.

The hike is one of the tougher ones I've done including sections negotiating your way through some large wet rocks. The trail is wet both because it is the rainy season but also because there are small springs and watefalls along the way.

But after a mile or so of trail, some sections rougher and hillier than others, you catch your first glimpse of the waterfall. In this picture you can just see the top of the waterfall among the tree tops. Given the terrain, it is clearlyquite a tall waterfall.

	Once you finally get into the open you can start to appreciate just how tall this waterfall is... about 200 feet. It isn't that great a waterfall if all you care about is a massive amount of water. It is clearly no Niagara. Still it is a very setting a very pleasant sight to see.

There is not a large pool at the bottom but there is a large open area and several folks seemed to be making a day of it there. At least until it started raining...

Happy Labor Day!!

I know that in the United States, you think Labor Day comes in September but here in Trinidad and Tobago, today is Labor Day, one of many holidays where they close down everything here. Some are familiar. Some seem a little odd.



The Trinis celebrate Labor Day on June 19th, the anniversary of the Butler Labour riots... In 1937, rabble rousing labor leader Tubal Uriah Butler was wanted by authorities on charges of inciting a riot. The police attempted to arrest him while he was giving a speech to his supporters, mostly oil industry workers with the rather predictable result of a riot. So arresting someone for inciting a riot incited a riot. Seems like a perfectly reasonable excuse for a holiday.

HOLIDAY	DATE	Celebrating
New Year's Day	January 1st	The Start of the New Year
Shouter Baptist Liberation Day	March 30th	The granting the Spiritual Baptists the right to openly practice their religion again.
Good Friday	April 14th	The crucifixion of Jesus
Easter Monday	April 17th	The day after the resurrection of Jesus and the disposal of hard-boiled colored eggs
Indian Arrival Day	May 30th	The easing of a labor shortage with a bunch of indentured workers from the sub-continent
Corpus Christi	June 15th	A smallish city in Texas
Labour Day	June 19th	Labour union riots
Emancipation Day	August 1st	The British freeing both of their slaves
Eid-Ul-Fitr	August 20th	Muslims being allowed to eat during daylight hours again - the end of Ramadan
Independence Day	August 31st	Trinidad becoming independent of the British crown. Either that or my birthday
Republic Day	September 24th	The citizens of TnT forming a republican form of government
Divali	November 13th	The Hindu version of Hanukkah - the festival of lights
Christmas Day	December 25th	The giving of Christmas gifts to friends and family
Boxing Day	December 26th	The returning of Christmas gifts to the stores.

So what's a visitor like me suppose to do on the day they celebrate rioting against police and oil companies? I'm thinking about going to see a waterfall or two. That seems perfectly appropriate to me.

Fine Dining Part 2

I am becoming increasingly impressed with some of the restaurants in Port of Spain. Keep in mind that I'm in a country with 1.3 million people and a city with just a few hundred thousand... though that may be counted like the 59 people who live in Speyside. Being reasonable about it, let's say that Port of Spain has 600,000 folks in the immediate area which makes it about the size of Tulsa, Oklahoma.

I've told you already about my visit to The Verandah which is, in fact, a fine restaurant. This time I'm adding two more to my fine restaurant list, the Chaud Cafe and Buzo Osteria.

Chaud Cafe

Chaud is a popular word in Port of Spain for a restaurant. There are at least three, Chaud, Chaud Cafe, and Chaud Creole, which are all well regarded. As close as I can tell, chaud is a french word for hot.

As it turns out Chaud Cafe is located at One Woodbrook Plaza which means its about 100 yards from One Woodbrook Place where I live. The plaza is a small shopping area whose largest shop at the north end of the group is The Shoe Locker. At the opposite end is a group of four small restaurants of which two are not closed for renovations. The last one of them is Chaud Cafe.

The Chaud Cafe has a simple, elegant interior and gives the impression that it is a bar with a few tables inside and an outdoor dining area. Given the cloudy skies and that it has been raining a lot lately, I chose to sit inside.

And the food? This is the Portuguese Garlic Pork Belly, with a penne pasta side and a glass of Sangria. All in all, it was a very good meal. I ended up taking some of the pasta dish home in a particularly nice container... not the usual Styrofoam clamshell... and the Chaud Cafe was a pleasing surprise.

Buzo Osteria

The formal name for Buzo's is Buzo Osteria Italiana so you can probably guess what kind of food they serve. No. It is not Chinese. Buzo is not located in the nicest neighborhood. All right. So. The neighborhood is more than a little run down. Even from the exterior though, Buzo has a thoroughly modern, well maintained look.

The interior is almost an odd collection of styles with the rough brick and stone walls to the modern light fixtures. I found myself wondering if this building had started out as something else and been converted to a restaurant. Given that the style doesn't seem to match any other building I've seen I think it was designed to look like this.

For dinner I had a baked salmon with olives, tomatoes and a white wine sauce. The side is a small salad (I do not want to see what the Grande looks like. I suspect it is a huge platter) made with assorted greens, peppers, tomatoes and corn. The third item is the focaccia bread. I had already eaten the piece that had green olives in it. The meal was delightful and the best I've had in Trinidad.

The meal was good enough that I decided to go completely wild and have desert as well. This is a dollop of vanilla gelato with whipped cream and chocolate shavings on top served with espresso around it. It was very good too. And as I rolled back to the apartment, I thought about the last three restaurants I'd been to and decided that the last pair would stack up well anywhere.

Television...

You know how you sometimes suspect that watering the lawn or washing your car are the surest way to guarantee rain? By that same logic, I went to my local Radio Shack to buy a TV antenna on Monday so that I could at least watch something on one of my four large screen television sets.

I got the thing home and hooked it up. Someday if you're looking for some simple minded fun try balancing a set of rabbit ears on top of a flat screen television. Oh the laughs I had with that one. Sure enough I could watch two of my local four channels. As close as I could tell, one of them is the Caribbean Talk Show Channel... I must have spent two maybe three seconds watching that one... and the other is the American Reruns Channel. The day I was watching, it featured House reruns.

By Wednesday the cable company had discovered that I was now able to enjoy CTSC without their assistance so they called to tell me that the cable guy would be there on Thursday morning.

Was this a source of great joy? Well, no actually. You see I was scheduled to make a presentation on Thursday at 11:00 and by the power of the elder gods and Murphy that meant the cable guy would call at 10:45. And he did. I could either have to forego television for another 82,000 weeks or postpone my presentation.

I delayed my presentation and rushed back to the apartment. I don't think the cable guy has ever had a customer help him before but between the two of us, we managed to have everything installed in about ten minutes. Instead of having four televisions with four non-functioning cable boxes, I now have four televisions with two functioning cable boxes and four non functioning cable boxes. Try as I might, I could not get the guy to take the old equipment. According to him, the cable company wants me to bring them into their office and he couldn't do it. "And what would be my motivation for doing that?" I asked. "Just leave them in the apartment," he replied.

You have to love bureaucracy in all its wonderful forms.

Back to the office only ten minutes late for my presentation... the others were eating their lunches which consisted of roti... a roti is a buritto made with potatoes and assorted other fillings using a tortilla about the size of a table cloth made out of something yellow... and some of the local soda pops... which have some pretty strange flavors available like banana, pear and my personal favorite, sorrel.

So everything turned out fine, except I have a large pile of cable equipment... anyone wishing to purchase nonfunctional equipment feel free to contact me... and I have channels.

Lord, do I have channels. I have at least a couple hundred channels. I have American Channels, British Channels, American Channels in Spanish (Animal Planet is only available here in Spanish). I have Hindi channels (including the best of Bollywood Channel), Chinese channels, German channels, French channels, and channels in languages I'm not even sure what they are. I think I might have some Arabic language channels and perhaps one in Korean.

Not that I can actually find anything to watch.

I think I'll go back to trying to figure out what sorrel is and why someone thinks it would be a good flavor for a soft drink.

Address in Trinidad

Some of my fan has asked me what my mailing address in Port of Spain is. And I generally answer "No."

Okay. Okay. I actually have an apartment address. Unfortunately, the apartment has a policy of only giving the mailbox keys to the owners... which is not me in this case. I'm not sure but I believe the actual owner of this apartment lives in India and so they aren't planning to come by and pick up the new key anytime soon. So the mail keeps getting jammed into the mailbox until such time as the mailbox explodes or whoever is stuffing it in the box decides to throw it away which does everyone a lot of good anyway.

So if you really want to send me something, send it to:

Stephen Kimmel
% Fluor Daniel South America, Limited
Invaders Bay Tower, Level 1
Off Audrey Jeffers Highway
Port of Spain
Trinidad & Tobago, W.I.

This address actually amuses me. The W.I. stands for West Indies which, as close as I can tell, is rather like addressing something to Houston, Texas, USA, North America. West Indies is a group of several independent nations located in the Caribbean. Some listings include Cuba in the West Indies and others include Belize which isn't even an island.

Fine Dining Part 1

Part of the experience in being in a foreign country is the dining and Trinidad is no exception. There are a few oddities that you might notice if you visit. The first is that Kentucky Fried Chicken outnumbers McDonalds about a hundred to one... which by my count is a testimony concerning their tastes. Not that KFC qualifies as fine dining.

Over the course of my stay I will be highlighting some of my visits in the city. Anyone curious to pursue this area more seriously than I will be, should visit Trinichow which is a website by foodies with the focus on de island.

Hakka

Hakka is in its own way typical of the restaurants around here. It has an unassuming exterior being a converted home, has no parking to speak of and serves a curious fusion of Chinese - Indian cuisines. It may be worth noting that Caucasians are the third most populous racial group behind Africans and Indians. Several of us went their for lunch when one of our coworkers decided to move on to another job. Haka is located just a few blocks from my apartment.

The Verandah
Huffington Post pronounced The Verandah the best restaurant in Trinidad and Tobago and they are in fact very good. I'll reserve judgement on the claim of best until I've tried a few more places. Here is the street where "the best restaurant in Trinidad is located. I took this picture early Sunday morning after my visit.

And this is the restaurant itself. You may notice the reoccurrence of the prevailing theme. The restaurant has two main dining areas; the room that used to be the living room and the verandah itself.

The tables were elegantly set and the plant-life that made the porch almost impossible to see from the street makes for a very pleasant setting. (Crummy cell phone picture. I have pictures of the menu... hand written on an easel that the waitress set up next to my table... and my meal but to honest the photos aren't that good. Surprisingly enough the highlight of the meal wasn't the food.

It was the fireworks. There is a place just a few doors up the street called "The Venue" where they were hosting some kind of celebration with fireworks that took everyone at The Vernadah by surprise. To be honest, when I first heard it, I thought it was gunfire.

My next dining venture will be at a restaurant that many of the expats tell me is actually the best in the city: Buzo Osteria. And it doesn't happen to be in an old house.

Television in Trinidad

One of my ongoing complaints about the arrangement here is that I have no cable television. Given that I have no antennas either, I have no over the air television either. (A situation I plan on rectifying at my local Radio Shack.) I have four large screen televisions and no signals. But despair not for your humble narrator. Where there's a will... I have a couple of alternatives that I've been using.

DVDs of Questionable Legality

Actually there is nothing questionable about it. They are illegal.

Port of Spain has something of a culture of tolerance toward dvd piracy. There are at least three places that selling copies of movies some of which aren't out of the theaters yet. Most are street vendors but at least one has a full blown store front. And the DVDs? Note the high quality of the cover art. A closer inspection shows that they are really copies of the theater posters. They accomplish the job... sort of. At least one of those contains a different DVD than the cover shows.

The DVDs themselves are simply bulk DVDs. The street vendor thoughtfully wrote the name of the movie on the DVD by hand. The storefront ones are simply blank. The quality is mixed but at the price, about $1.50 each, no one is too concerned.

Live TV on the Internet

My other source of television is the internet and a couple sites in particular.

Buba's TV Shack

Buba's has a wide variety of links to most of the typical American and a large number of British cable television channels. They have a couple of BBC and ITV channels. As you might expect, the quality is not great but it is watchable. There is a pause at the beginning for an advertisement but sometimes, as with ESPN, there are no commercials. It is difficult, at best, to figure out what is going to be on ahead of time and the delay is not conducive to channel surfing.

Now Watch TV Live

This website is based out of India and has a huge number of Indian and Pakistani channels in addition to most of the American and British channels. For those who care, there is also a Polish channel. Here is full screen mode from ESPN from this website.

Not great but watchable. I'm not sure I'm missing much by not having ready access to the Port of Spain channels. The primary thing I watched on them was cricket until it was clear that if I continued to watch, I would have problems retaining my will to live.

Speyside - The Last Day and a Half

I suppose it must be obvious by now that while I found the Manta Lodge to be adequate and reasonably priced, I thought it might be a good idea to see if I could do better. As we drove to the pier to get in the diving boat, and everyday I went to a restaurant for dinner, I couldn't help but notice another hotel and dive shop just up the road. So I decided to take a look and see what they were like. The Manta Lodge had been the number one choice on Tripadvisors for hotels in Speyside but the Speyside Inn was number two and from the outside, it looked better.

The Inn itself is almost violently yellow and the dive shop looked nice and new as well. The first thing I noticed that seemed a little odd was that there was a group of four people eating lunch on the dive shop's verandah. I didn't want to bother them so I looked around the dive shop, noting that everything I saw was in either English or German. A few moments later a nice young woman who introduced herself as Tanya approached me, eager to answer my questions. Tanya's accent was oddly familiar but I couldn't place it.

A few moments later, the divemaster, Adrian drove up and the three of us were chatting away about this dive site or another. As Tanya later explained to me, the company they work for needed a photo for the website in a hurry so she and Adrian went out to somewhere green hoping the picture might look something like Tobago. Hahahaha. The two of them, like the divemaster at the Manta Lodge, are Swiss. Switzerland bears essentially zero similarity to Tobago. My impression of the dive shop and the staff there was very favorable.

That evening I went back to the Speyside Inn for dinner and it was in fact superior to most of the fare I had gotten elsewhere. And who should approach me to say hello but Tanya. And a few moments later, here comes Adrian to say hello and ask me how my dinner was. I said it was the best I had had in Speyside and he said the cook would be pleased to hear that. And then he cleared the table for me. In my experience, this never happens. The divemaster never, ever, waits tables in the restaurant. Adrian explained that he and Tanya did a bit of everything around the hotel. So pressing my luck I asked if he could find someone to show me a room. Of course. And a few minutes later, he came back with a couple keys and I was off for a tour of the hotel.

The rooms were almost as brightly colorful as the exterior and instead of evoking thoughts of "Lord, this is modest," I found myself thinking "This is nice."

After my tour, I thanked Adrian and expressed my amazement that the Divemaster would go to such lengths. As he explained, he and Tanya not only run the dive shop, they are the hotel managers as well and suddenly I understood. Then he invited me to join to two of them and three of their guests while they dined. So I joined the two Swiss hotel managers and their three German guests and we had a pleasant evening talking about diving and insects we despise and what not.

The next morning I had my last two dives of the trip after I said good-bye to the other two guests at the Manta Lodge. This is John and Linda from San Antonio, Texas about to get into the same "taxi" that would later take me back to the airport. I was unbelievably grateful this driver knew the roads as well as he did. I might not be back yet if I had driven. They are off to spend several days at the Asa Wright Nature Centre. I enjoyed their company quite a bit as well.

The last two dives were the best of the trip in terms of sea-life, healthy coral and me not feeding the fish. Sean had warned the new diver who joined us that I would get sea-sick on the pier. All told, it was a pleasant diving session and trip.

After the dive I was heading toward the last of the restaurants in the area I wanted to try, Jemma's Treehouse, and as I walked I happened to pass the Speyside Inn. Of course, Adrian and my new German friends called out to me and wished me a pleasant day. Like I said, the Speyside Inn folks made a very favorable impression on me.



Last picture. This is a typical Tobagoan "Mini-Mart." Overall, its about the size of a toolshed and they are quite literally all over Tobago and probably Trinidad as well. I saw the poster on the side of the thing so often on the drive to Speyside that I had to know what the story was. The rather hot looking babe is selling crackers. Such is what they use sex appeal to sell in Trinidad.

Speyside Day 2

I slept really well at the Manta Lodge. Other than the constant breaking of the waves, the hotel was quiet as a tomb. Little town. Off season. Turns out there are two other guests, John and Linda from San Antonio. Since none of us are serious partiers, the bar was quiet except for the tv playing the introduction to Law and Order.

First thing in the morning you go down and enjoy the ocean view from the restaurant - bar area. You sit and enjoy your coffee until the waitress asks what you'd like for breakfast. Today's offering is bacon and eggs with toast and jam. I think the jam was actually orange marmalade. Given my experience, I thought breakfast might be an exercise in futility and it was.

About 7:30 Sean, the divemaster, asks me if I'm ready to go. I am the only diver today so no problem. Sean, Sledge, his assistant, and I pile into their extra fancy dive truck. After a bit of coaxing and one inspection under the hood, the truck starts and we drive down to the town pier to head out for our day of diving.

Sean and I get our gear ready while Sledge prepares the boat. This is one of the smaller boats I've been on during one of our dive trips. Sledge will stay with the boat while Sean and I dive. Sean, oddly enough, is Swiss but he allows that he could never live in Switzerland. I suspect it left its mark though. He doesn't care for Caribbean islands that don't have mountains.

Once everything is ready Sean takes the helm and we're away heading for the wreck of the MV Roundtable. The ship was intentionally sunk for divers so we're able to go inside through a hatch into what had been the engine room, through the interior and finally up to the bridge.

After getting back onto the boat, the futility of eating breakfast became apparent and we headed off toward dive spot#2, the Japanese Gardens. This is a particularly rich assortment of coral and fish and I saw several tarpons, lobsters and some strange little eels who were busy pretending to be seaweed. The underwater currents were very strong and now I fully understand the idea of drift diving.

After another surface rest period, demonstrating the futility of eating breakfast again, and admiring the view of Speyside from the boat, we do our third dive of the morning at a location called The Cathedral, or if you happen to be from around here, De Cadedral. All the white spots on the shore are buildings.

By noon, the day's diving is done and I'm starving. So after cleaning the salt out of everything, I'm off down the road to find lunch.

Today I pick Birdwatcher's Restaurant and Bar. Their place is much nicer than Redman's; they have glass windows and matching furniture. The menu is similar though; chicken, fish, lobster and shrimp. With any of those you get the same sides; rice, salad, macaroni pie, callaloo and provision.

The two mystery items, the callaroo and the provisions are on the upper left of my plate. The callaloo is a pureed spinach with some assorted spices. The provisions are an assortment of starchy foods. In this case I got a couple of slices of plantains and some purplish yam that was like the taro I've tried in Hawaii. In any case, the food was fine and abundant and a bit less expensive than at Redman's.

And, yes, I had a bottle of Carib Beer. And a bottle of Sorrel Shandy. I have no idea what a sorrel is... the bottle had pictures of some bright red plant or flower or something. It was definitely tasty.

Speyside Day 1

One of my ongoing regrets was that I took up scuba diving after I finished my assignment in Jakarta. Indonesia has some seriously primo diving sites. But if I had I would have missed out on the experiences with my number one dive buddy, Kalyn. Still I was determined to not repeat the misstep and so I booked a scuba trip this three day weekend.

Trinidad itself has comparatively few dive spots but the sister island, Tobago (the formal name of the country is Trinidad and Tobago) has several so it was off to Tobago. (Unrelated sidelight; corporate security wants to know whenever I leave the country and in their minds, that includes leaving Trinidad and going to Tobago. I wonder how seriously they take that Texas tourism slogan: It's like a whole 'nother country.)

There are two choices on how to get to Tobago from Trinidad; the 20 minute flight or the two hour ferry ride. I opted for the flight. The airport on Tobago is on the southwestern most tip of Tobago while the town I chose to stay in, Speyside, is pretty much on the northeast end. So getting to the airport is the short half of the trip. The driver... and thank God I decided not to rent a car. I might still be on the road... complained bitterly about the traffic and with good cause. The traffic was awful. Lesson learned: You don't need a lot of people and cars to cause traffic jams. You just need a lot more than the roads are equipped to handle.

After about an hour of windy, twisty, poor roads, poorly marked and poorly maintained, we arrived at the Manta Lodge in Speyside. You can just see the scuba shop on the left. The dark area on the ground floor on the right is where the restaurant and the hotel's one television set. The TV seemed to be playing the Law and Order channel. Georgia would have been happy with that.

The room is modest... spartan might be a better word. Although it was described as an "Ocean-view" room, you can barely see the ocean for the trees growing around it. But like a cruise ship, you don't go on a scuba trip to spend a lot of time in your room. (Although on a scuba trip, you spend a lot more time in your room than you might guess.) You come to see the ocean.

Speyside is a little town nestled among the hills. Given that the population of the entire island is only about 50,000 I'm not sure what I expected. According to the 2000 census, the population of Speyside was 59. I think if you include the entire metropolitan area, that number probably increases to at least 100. It is, by a large margin, the smallest place I've gone to scuba dive. Again, you don't go to visit the town. You go to scuba dive.

I managed to get in just one dive the day arrived. The divemaster decided to take me and a couple from San Antonio to a dive site called "Step-up." It is located close to the jagged rocks on the far left side of this picture. And yes, that is a house on the far right side of the island. That is the home of Ian Flemming, the author who created James Bond. He built his home on "Goat Island" presumably to get away from the hubbub and the crowds of Speyside.

The dive itself went just fine. Lots of little fish and sea-slugs and healthy coral. Visibility was about 60-100 feet though it started to decline toward the end of the dive.

Despite what I said earlier, you do go into "town" to eat and this is the restaurant I picked. Or rather it picked me. The proprietor called me in and I went. This place is known as Redman's. I suspect it has something to do with the paint. And yes, you are correct. It has no windows. The menu consists of three choices: chicken, fish or lobster. I went with fish.

This is the interior of Redman's. Note the elegant plywood ceiling and concrete floor. Almost note the source of light. The one, count them, one light bulb is it after 6:30. The food was plentiful and done in the local creole style. It was a bit heavy on starchy foods. Dinner included a huge bowl of rice, a macaroni salad and an assortment of sweet potato and plantain sides. It was ample. And though they didn't offer beer, I topped it off with a ginger shandy which is sort of like beer mixed with ginger ale with just a touch of pepper. I liked it.