Hot Like Pepper - Hard times in TT: doubles hit $4.00 each - Health & Lifestyle

Health & Lifestyle : Hard times in TT: doubles hit $4.00 each

2008/3/8 1:30:00

Two doubles, with slight pepper, please. That would be $8!

Whaaaat?! as high-strung Trinidad and Tobago television host Anil Roberts would say.

Yes, call it Mr. Doubles! The delicacy of channa (chickpeas) and bara (fried flour skins) is now setting you back TT $4 each at many street side vendors. Some are holding out at TT $3, but admitting that it is only a matter of time before they jack up their prices.

The ever-climbing cost of ingredients is what has doubles-lovers paying more for the indigenous TT dish. In fact, the increased price of doubles symbolises the impact of inflation in Trinidad and Tobago.

The cost of living has risen by an average of eight per cent, although it slid up by 10 per cent in January. The chief culprits are basic food items.

Cooking oil, flour, paper, channa and peppers are the chief ingredients in doubles, and their prices have each gone up in recent times. The cost of flour has shot up by almost 100 per cent over the past year, as a result of the international wheat crisis.

The prices of channa and seasonings have more than doubled, while the cost of oil has jumped by about 30 per cent. Even pepper prices are, well, hot.

Doubles vendors, aware that their delicacy is a national dish appreciated by thousands each day, say they are reluctant to send up prices. "We have no choice," said a popular Curepe vendor as he pasted some chandon beni on an item for a customer on the go. "Everything going up." And at the end of the day doubles vendor is no better off, because the extra cost just goes into the cost of producing the doubles; there's no extra profit.

Would the higher cost lead to a rollback in demand? Hardly!

"What could we do?" asked a middle-aged woman, with typical indifference. "It is still cheap food, and it is good for you. We would complain for a while and then…"

So, how about another one, Mr. Vendor? And go easy on the pepper, you hear!

- Ken Ali