There's nothing better than eating outdoors (I think) - bits of dirt and grime add just that lil' som-som to your meal. And there's definitely nothing better than eating on a sandy beach after a salty dip in the ocean.

Richard's Bake and Shark is the best kind of beach meal, too. And at TT$25 (or US$4) there's simply nothing better.

Richard. I tink.

On Trinidad's Maracas Beach there's really only one thing to eat. A Bake and Shark burger. The 'bake' means fry-bake and it looks like a deep fried bun slivered in half and the 'shark' is exactly that, battered and deep fried.

What makes Richard's stand out from the rest of the beach's 'bake and shark' is the type of toppings you are invited to drown your burger with.

Under Richard's bright red canopy lie several metal dishes containing a variety of toppings with your standard lettuce, tomatoes, onions, ketchup and mustard but then ingenious others like tamarind sauce, cilantro/coriander (Chadon Bene perhaps?) sauce, garlic sauce, spiced pineapples, cabbage, mango chutney, a thousand island type of sauce and.....the mother of all hot sauces.

(On a side note: What I learned is, if you want to try the hot sauce in Trini, you may as well eat it IN the bathroom...'cause that would save a lot of time, really).

Er...aaaanyway...if you're still reading this and weren't repulsed by my toilet banter.... basically you come away (after it's wrapped and placed into a cardboard box for you by the gentleman at the head of the condiment table) with your bake and shark looking like this:

And it is simply the. best. thing. ever.

It's worth the trip to Trinidad.

Trinidad: Richard's Bake and Shark

Trinidad!