Rediscovering Doubles at the Trini-Paki Boys Cart

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The Trini-Paki Boys cart (on the SE corner of 43rd and 6th) is well known to Midtown Lunch’ers.  It’s mostly famous for their Pakistani version of chicken over rice, topped with Trinidadian pepper sauce- but Zach was pretty excited to discover that they also served biriyani, dahi bala, polourie, samosas, and most importantly doubles.

I discovered doubles in my college days through a Trinidadian ex-girlfriend. It’s been years since we’ve been on speaking terms, but doubles are still a fond memory. So a week or so ago I finally got a chance to check out the Trini Paki Boys cart for myself- and for once skipped the street meat in favor of a double.

After the jump, some doubles porn and a little background on the whole “Trini-Paki” thing.

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In previous posts there was a bit of confusion about how Trinis and Pakistanis converged. The short version of West Indian history is that the British brought many Indian workers and servants to the Caribbean, particularly to Trinidad and Guyana, where they are the majority of the population. And that is how you end up with food like doubles coming from Trinidad. It’s a scoop of curried chickpeas (also called channa) sandwiched between two small, thick roti shells with a spicy pepper sauce and a sweet tamarind sauce.

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When ordering, you should know that the singular of doubles is still doubles, so it’s one doubles or two doubles. It’s weird, but true. The doubles I had before are small pouches that you could easily eat two or three of for a sweet, spicy and savory breakfast. The Trini Paki Boys versions are different, bigger and served flat. Also different is the roti bread, which isn’t as soft.

It’s a bit hard to eat with your hand hands (the fork is definitely necessary), but the filling- with the chickpeas and the sauces- is wonderful. The spice left my lips tingling all the way back to work, while the sweetness of the tamarind had me going back for more even as the heat built up.

My only issue is with the bread, which is mostly just different than what I’ve had before, but not bad in any way. Regardless, at $2 a piece, they’re remarkably filling and very good. I’ll be back for more (and you should too!), but next time, I might order one and have it accompany a taco from El Rey del Sabor across 43rd Street.

Related:
The Hidden Delicious Mysteries of the Trini-Paki Boys Cart

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