It's a national dish, as common to Trinidad and Tobago as the Hot Dog stand in North America. And the 'ritual' is to cluster around the doubles man/woman and eat as much as you want. Not anymore.The times are changing. Steep increases in the price of main ingredients like flour, peppers and chick peas have force vendors to jack up prices - from $2.00 and $2.50 to $4.00. Some of them are trying to hold it to $3.00, but admit that it's only a matter of time before they have to follow the crowd.
But here's the worst part of the story. The doubles vendor goes home with no extra profit; the extra cost just covers the cost of the raw ingredients.
And speaking about crowds, some people are saying it would soon be less crowded around the doubles stand. "Not so," is the consensus from doubles-lovers. It's still good value for money. And nutritious too.
I remember the good ol' days, going to school in San Fernando and getting a full lunch for a quarter - two doubles from my favourite doubles man and a bottle of juice (which was mostly water) from Young Sam's parlour on Independence Square. That was in the sixties, when life was simple and there were no AK47's around.
Ah, the good times! Those were the days when you could buy groceries for a week for a family of eight with $20.00. And the country was one big, happy family. Sure the politicians made a point of creating divisions once every five years, but we were still a people living in peace, celebrating our differences and respecting one another.
And crime? That was almost non-existent. Hard to believe, but true.
I wonder what it would be like in 2020? Perhaps Prime Minister Patrick Manning knows.
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