Interestin Menu
Girl gone Wild![/color]
The “cowgirls” at the Wild Thing Restaurant and Sportsbar, Cantaro Village, Santa Cruz, pose for a photo on January 4. From left to right: Sherry-Ann Rodriguez, Lorena Romain, Fae Dipnarine, Keisha Marshall and Janelle Bonas.BY AVALENE HARRIS - Trinidad GuardianLetitia Agard, general manager of the newly-opened Wild Thing Restaurant and Sportsbar, plans to tickle the tastebuds of diners with one of this country’s first in-season wild meat creole foods.
The fully air-conditioned restaurant, which opened its doors on December 18, offers a wide variety of mouth-watering wild meat dishes, which include lappe, tattoo, agouti, iguana, deer, wild hog, rabbit, common fowl, local turkey and duck.
All of these dishes are served with either dumplings (which they call on the menu “plastics”) or provisions (”blue food”).
Bartender Kambon Charles strikes a pose with some of the drinks available at the bar. “This was the kinda food that I grew up on,” she said, with a smile.
“People were so accustomed to the traditional Chinese, Italian and Indian restaurants that we wanted to remind them that somewhere you could still find the kind of food that Mammy used to cook or what you would find in Tobago.
“Here, we bringing Tobago to you.”
Agard, of El Dorado, said she was instrumental in designing the uniforms of the five hostesses. Their outfits—black fitted three quarter pants, fitted red cap-sleeved shirts, knee-high pointy-toed boots and straw Western hats—are well-suited to the Western theme of the restaurant’s decor.
Inside the restaurant’s spacious air-conditioned setting, stands a large entertainment centre which includes five television sets and a projector screen, complete with a black leather three-piece living room set.
The restaurant, which opens from 11 am-2 pm, has a cocktail bar—the house cocktail’s called The Wild Thing Shotgun.
The restaurant also brings three nights of entertainment to customers: a karaoke night, comedy night and after-work lime.
Lorena Romain and Sherry-Ann Rodriguez enjoy a drink in the family dining room at Wild Thing Restaurant and Sportsbar, as bartender Kambon Charles relaxes.She said that management did not include monkey and turtles on its menu because they did not like the idea of slaying such animals.
Agard said when the hunting season was closed, the restaurant planned to provide a strong creole menu as its back-up.
During the season, which runs until June 30, hunting is unlimited.
The menu would include local dishes such as pound plantain, pound yam, oildown, crab and dumpling, coo coo and pepperpot.
Pepperpot, originally an Arawak dish, was prepared at the restaurant by marinating all the meats for 12 hours in coconut milk and seasoning. It is served with dasheen, yam, cassava and dumplings.
“With the wide variety of local foods to choose from, you could never ever miss a beat.”
Before the restaurant opened, advertisements were placed on the radio inviting wild meat suppliers to come on board.
She said, however, that because of some of the exorbitant prices placed on the meats, they were searching for new suppliers.
“There were some who were calling some really ridiculous prices for their wild meat.
“There was one supplier in particular, who was selling wild hog at $125 a pound, whereas we were getting the same product cheaper, at $50 a pound.
“We could not condone that.” Management is collaborating with hunters from the South, rather than those in the North, because of their cheaper prices.
Agard said they planned to expand the franchise to Chaguanas and Arima.
While commending the restaurant’s two cooks, Maurice Millette and Monica Cox, Agard said that they had brought to the restaurant over 40 years of experience, having both worked at local and international establishments.
She added that since the restaurant opened, they had received great responses from area residents and outsiders on the restaurant and its staff.
“We want to give the best to our customers.
“People must want to travel from as far as South to come here and eat,” she concluded.
Photo: Wendy-Ann Duncan 