Man from South, woman from Chaguanas, children in school uniforms from St. Joseph and university students walk in the new restaurant on the junction. Curepe is a place for local entrepreneurs exchanging cash day to day on the backs of brands we’ve known for years.
In the mix of all of this, Tahira Bruce, cashier and law student, welcomes me into Sushi Express in uniform. This is not my first time eating here but it was the first time for a young man in his twenty’s whose father encouraged him to literally try his hand at chopsticks. Tahira conducted a short session in Chopsticks Manoeuvring and Etiquette 101 as the young man listened and anxiously practiced. In the small restaurant, many had their first try of a unique “local something” flavour at Sushi Express, Curepe.
Trinidad simplicity. High seats. One table for two suggests this is a “buy and buss it” spot. Smooth R & B on the radio’s speakers overhead obtains a sing along by customers and staff as chef Nyoka David rolls her rice for a delivery order. Sushi Express permits an interactive experience for spur of the moment conversations on sushi or soca music because of its intimate seating arrangement. You sit in front of the chef. Everything is done before your eyes. And you are in control of the final creation of the sushi. My pen fails me and Tahira comes to the rescue without my asking as I list the vegetarian options on the menu: Vegetable Roll (Carrots, Cucumber, Lettuce, Cabbage and the paid pption of cream cheese and/or plantain), Seaweed Salad, Vegetable Tempura (tempura batter includes egg), Express Salad, Edamame, Miso Soup.
More meat than vegetarian options on the menu, but you can create your own vegetarian sushi roll on request – blend the creativity of your dreams and the chef’s skills!
Head Chef and Executive Director, Tamika Pierre started Sushi Express in November 2014 and by March 2015 began transitioning to her new branch at Piarco Plaza. I asked, “What is next on the horizon for you?” She replied confidently, “Sushi in Chaguanas!” I fell in love with her hopes to move sushi from its typical city centres and she had this to say: “ Curepe was divine intervention. Everywhere was too expensive and the rent [here] was affordable. I was happy for this blessing. Many think sushi is an uptown dish but it is simply something I like to do. I want to let the people of Trinidad and Tobago know that with forty dollars, you can buy doubles and barbecue, but you can also buy sushi”.
Early in the business, young, still in her 20s ,and the mother of a baby son, her challenge was the weight she carried on her shoulders by executing all tasks on her own when she started her entrepreneurship path. She now employs a chef, management and wait staff at the two branches. Her mother does the interior decorations of her restaurants, bringing together the accent walls, Buddha, bamboo and Japanese folding fans. Tamika says, “my team thick!”
With a BLU mobile phone and autofocus, Tamika markets Sushi Express on Facebook and organically grew 2,300 likes with testimonies and positive reviews. Tamika and her team gave Curepe a first time experience on a junction that many thought was only the battleground for doubles-men notoriously named ‘Sauce’. Like the son who learned the art of chopsticks while tasting this melting pot of Japanese tradition and the Trinidadian spirit of making something our own, we all deserve a first time.
