Naparima Girls' High School Cookbook
- Year
- 1971
- Era
- 20th century
- Origin
- Trinidad · Americas
- Language
- English
- Category
- Caribbean
The Naparima Girls' High School Cookbook, first issued in 1971 as a fundraising project of the San Fernando school, has become the standard domestic reference for Trinidadian cookery and a defining record of Indo-Caribbean cuisine. Its collected recipes for roti, curries, pelau, chutneys, and local sweets document the creolised foodways of Trinidad's Indian, African, Chinese, and European communities, and successive expanded editions have carried the compilation throughout the Caribbean diaspora.
Cooking from this book
Curry Chicken with Buss Up Shut
Signature dishFew dishes capture the spirit of this beloved compendium more than curry chicken served alongside paratha roti, affectionately nicknamed buss up shut for its torn, shirt-like appearance. The pairing embodies the Indo-Trinidadian culinary heritage the Naparima compilers set out to preserve, blending South Asian spice traditions with island ingredients and technique. Generations of Caribbean cooks and diaspora households have turned to this volume precisely for its authoritative take on such everyday yet emblematic Trinidadian fare.
An editorial note on a dish associated with this book, written for The Coquinist. It is not a reproduction of the book's recipe.
