From Holland to Trinidad

by Ilka Hilton-Clarke

(African Warrior batik print
by Ilka Hilton-Clarke)

I am Dutch, though I was born in Germany. I went back and forth between Germany and Holland until I became an air hostess in Iceland, then a tour guide at the United Nations in New York City.

I met my husband, who is a Trinidadian in my New York years. After he was my boyfriend for some time he said he would show me how they make Chinese fried rice in his native country. I was a relatively inexperienced cook in those days, just very good at salads and the like, not "real" food. So I watched as he boiled an enormous pot of rice for just the two of us and then proceeded to add sliced onions and break eight eggs into the still boiling rice. It was one sloshy mess ! The next day I was visiting, he did the same again, but with about 6 eggs only, because he thought the eggs made the fried rice mushy. Same result. He tried it one more time, this time using 1 minute rice, cooking it for 20 minutes and adding only 4 eggs. You can guess the result. He never lives this story down, of course. I really don't bring it up very often, I promise.

Many years later I attended a Chinese cooking class in Trinidad, which was run by a Chinese Jamaican lady, who also lives in Trinidad. So the "Chinese" cooking is West Indian Chinese cooking and probably is nothing like the Chinese cooking from China.

Editors note: Ilka has learned more than fried rice and has many more recipes on her site. She also makes extraordinary batiks. If you'd like to see more of her beautiful batiks, visit her site: dolphin designs batik

Trinidad Chinese fried rice
chicken mango stew
Trinidad crab backs
Trinidad Saltfish Bouljol, a la Ilka
Trinidad garlic pork
mushroom soup

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