Trinciti is open seven days a week from 6am-8pm. If you do the math, this means that the counter-service spot in South Ozone Park is open for more hours of the week than it’s closed. And if you take things a step further, it means that 98 hours of the week, you can get your hands on the best Trinidadian food this city has to offer: pillowy aloo pie, doubles laden with bouncy shrimp and soft, thick channa, or infant-sized goat roti. 

photo credit: Kate Previte

photo credit: Kate Previte

photo credit: Kate Previte

photo credit: Kate Previte

photo credit: Kate Previte

This information does not go unnoticed. There’s always a line inside (and sometimes outside too), and all those double-parked cars in front belong to people who are waiting for their food. Trinciti is an expertly-oiled machine though, with a line controlled so effectively by stanchions that it would make security at nearby JFK jealous. It moves swiftly, but you’ll still have a few moments to mull over your order. And, for someone to insist that you must get the shrimp doubles, you really must. (They’re not wrong.)

An army of women behind the counter grab cafeteria trays, ask you what you want, and then get to work, stopping only to inquire if you’d like the oxtail doubles spicy, or to alert someone in the back kitchen that the chicken curry is running low among the sea of buffet trays. About 20 minutes after you've entered, you can expect to exit: currant roll already missing a bite clutched in one hand, and a five pound bag of skillfully swaddled, tamarind-sauce-covered proteins in the other. All that’s left to do is locate the nearest flat surface, and go to town.

Food Rundown

photo credit: Kate Previte

Doubles

Palm-sized and $5 or less, it just makes sense to get a few of these. We like the oxtail doubles, which each have one soft oxtail placed in the center of them. But we might like the shrimp doubles even more. It’s not that the shrimp provides a particularly unique flavor—in fact, it's pretty drowned out by the heavily-spiced channa—but it does give the ultra-soft, chickpea-filled bara a little bouncy bite.

photo credit: Kate Previte

Aloo Pie

We like to get at least one of these oval-shaped fried doughs without any toppings, so that you can taste the chewy, pillowy bread stuffed with soft mashed potato all by itself.

photo credit: Kate Previte

Roti

If you ordered this just to observe someone behind the counter swaddling its contents gently and swiftly into the roti, as if the chunks of goat and potato were a baby, we wouldn’t blame you. It’s a beautiful sight. Unwrapping the roti is equally gorgeous. Peel back the layers of soft, stretchy dough to reveal a thick, stewy heap of curry that will stain your fingertips yellow for at least three days.

photo credit: Sonal Shah

Bake and Shark

On Friday through Sunday, there’s a separate line just for this huge, special sandwich, which features fried, herb-marinated shark packed into fry bake—a craggy, puffy bread—along with a generous amount of cabbage, lettuce, tomato, pineapple, and several sweet and tangy sauces. Take one to the beach, and ask for a little extra sauce unless you're planning to eat it much later.

Pelau

If pelau is available as a special, you’re getting the pelau. The combination of rice, pigeon peas and bone-in chunks of meat (usually chicken) comes in a plastic takeout container so full that when you get home and open it, some rice might tumble out. And it’s so deeply comforting that you might consider using the five-second rule for every fallen grain.

photo credit: Kate Previte

Currant Roll

You’ll find the currant rolls—a dense, crumbly pastry studded with tart dried currants—right next to the cashier. Add a few to your order while you check out, and get crumbs all over yourself on your way home. It’s the only thing that will keep you from eating your doubles standing up. (Which is inadvisable. Channa, shrimp, and your shirt will be harmed in the process.)