Pelau is the so­lu­tion to every­thing. It has its ce­ment­ed place in every­one’s lives as the most ver­sa­tile (and ar­guably, de­li­cious) meal in the Trin­bag­on­ian menu. If some­one pass­es away, ex­pect a con­so­la­tion tup­per­ware filled with pelau. If you’re hav­ing a lime, then you’ll most like­ly be wel­comed with a warm pot of pelau. And if you ex­pect a long wait for a loved one at the air­port, then pop the trunk, grab a pa­per plate and—you guessed it—en­joy your pelau. It’s ba­si­cal­ly the na­tion­al casse­role of Trinidad and To­ba­go and to be hon­est, we’d have it no oth­er way.

The most strik­ing qual­i­ty about pelau is the abil­i­ty for it to taste com­plete­ly dif­fer­ent from house to house. Wet or dry, beef or chick­en, pump­kin or no pump­kin, with or with­out that glo­ri­ous or­ange cook­ing but­ter—the pos­si­bil­i­ties are end­less. But, the best thing about pelau seems to be how it tells the sto­ry of the peo­ple of Trin­ba­go.

Pelau’s ori­gins come from rice pi­laf or polow, a dish com­mon­ly pre­pared across Cen­tral and South Asia and the Mid­dle East. Pelau in Trinidad and To­ba­go how­ev­er, came from East In­di­an in­den­tured labour­ers who were used to prepar­ing pu­lao. Burn­ing the meat in sug­ar to get that sig­na­ture smoky, sweet flavour, sim­i­lar to the be­gin­nings of a great stew is in­flu­enced by African food tra­di­tions. The mash-up of cul­tures beau­ti­ful­ly ex­em­pli­fies the Tri­ni cul­ture, a lit­tle bit of every­thing. Sim­mer your pelau with a whole pep­per (let it burst if you’re brave), sea­son­ing, pump­kin and of course, creamy co­conut milk. You prob­a­bly grew up with your moth­er us­ing the yel­low pack­ets of co­conut pow­der or two cans of glis­ten­ing white co­conut milk—ei­ther one will give you the touch of sweet­ness and cream need­ed for a per­fect pelau.

And condi­ments are a whole oth­er top­ic when it comes to pelau. If you rather creamy, opt for a sweet coleslaw most like­ly brought by the British. If you pre­fer savoury and tart, fresh toma­to cho­ka or co­conut chut­ney, which come from a blend of In­di­an and British cul­ture, add the per­fect amount of acid­i­ty, pep­per and fresh­ness to take your pelau over the top. Kuchela, boiled plan­tain and a fresh green sal­ad fin­ish the meal per­fect­ly.

Our picks for the best 'lau in the coun­try:

1 El Pecos Grill, Diego Mar­tin, Barataria, Mar­aval, Wood­brook

2 Cre­ole Kitchen, Mar­aval

3 The Orig­i­nal Break­fast Shed, Wright­son Road, Port-of-Spain

4 KCA Cui­sine, Bel­mont

5 Ken­ny's Restau­rant & Lounge, San­gre Grande

6 Jen­ny’s Kitchen Ko­rner, Freeport

7 Arthur's Bar, Ba­lan­dra