Antojos: A Taste of Venezuelan Cuisine in Trinidad
Trinidad and Tobago is known as the Caribbean’s melting pot with its vast array of ethnicities and cultures. Over the years, the flavour palette of T&T has evolved at an exponential rate as Trinbagonians have become more adventurous with dining. Cuisines from all of the world are now easily available, from the likes of sushi from Japan, gyros from the Mediterranean and more recently arepas from Venezuela! An adventurous up-and-coming restaurant called Antojos has seen the appeal for Latin food among locals and is hoping to share Venezuelan cuisine with its customers.
Antojos was founded by Antonio Aman, who works together with his wife Mary and their son Richard to achieve the family’s goal of running a successful restaurant. Antonio, originally from Trinidad moved across to Venezuela over 20 years ago where he met his wife and started a family of his own. Just over six years ago, Antonio and his family moved back to his homeland Trinidad in search of new opportunities for him and his household.
Cooking was not Antonio’s main occupation in Venezuela — or that of his family. “My two sons and myself are lawyers and my wife is a teacher,” he says, “but in Venezuela, we had a school and we used to do a lot of cooking so we decided in Trinidad we will try and open up a small little restaurant.”
The journey to building their restaurant set out when they began to sell their food at the popularized Santa Cruz Green Market. “We decided to look at the options. We were visiting the Green Market and saw the big business opportunity, which was now starting, and we decided to bring our food for them.”
With business growing, Antojos established a full-time Monday to Friday restaurant in St Clair for customers to have access to their food outside of weekends. The location is a cosy spot located on the corner of Tragarete Road and Carlos Street. Antojos caters for people who want a quick hot meal to grab and go as well as for those who prefer to casually dine in and savour a freshly prepared meal.
Promising an authentic Venezuelan food experience, Antojos’ menu specializes in four core dishes: empanadas, arepas, cachapas and patacones. With each dish, Antonio explains how the authenticity of Venezuelan food is a major factor in the food they prepare, “We try and keep our flavours and ingredients as original as possible,” Antonio says. “That’s one of the reasons why when people ask us, we don’t cook with chadon beni because it is not used over there. Our main ingredients are from masa and corn.”
To add further, Antojos has not been afraid to go outside the box and is currently experimenting with exotic ingredients as demonstrated in their octopus ceviche patacones.
With Antojos venturing onto this exciting chapter, Propa Eats sought to find out what keeps Antojos motivated as a business in the competitive food space. Antonio says, “I think it’s the reviews and the comments and the clientele that has kept us alive because they have been coming back frequently. We listen to them about what they like and what they need like. We have just incorporated lobster asopado. We have incorporated ceviche, octopus and shrimps; those were new things that customers were asking for.” Mary, wife of Antonio chimed in to explain Antojos main philosophy from the beginning is to always listen to the customer. Mary is the first person you will meet when dining at Antojos who greets every customer with a smile.
Antojos
Tragarete Road (Corner of Carlos Street)
(868)387-9929 / (868)301-3701
facebook.com/Antojostt/
@antojostt
Opening Hours:
Tragarete Road, Monday-Friday, 6 a.m. – 3 p.m.
The Green Market: Saturdays and Sundays, 6 a.m. – 2 p.m.
How to Get There:
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