Richard's Bake & Shark (Trinidad) Slideshow

Richard's bake and shark in Maracas Bay, is about a forty-minute drive from Port-of-Spain, Trinidad.

Maracas Bay is a windy inslet, a wide beach peppered with tall, swaying palm trees where fIshermen bring their boats in just across the street from Richard's Bake & Shark.

Facing the water is a series of open sheds on the left where local fisherman bring in the day's catch to clean and break it down to bring it to market.

There are several stands selling bake and shark, but Richard's is the most well-known and heralded.

These days, Richard's is run by Gary Ferguson, who took it over for his father, Richard, the man who started the stand more than 20 years ago.

 There are typically more than ten deep half hotel trays filled with fresh toppings: lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, cole slaw, and perhaps the most fun, pineapple slices. There are sauces too: hot sauce, tamarind, a Thousand Island like dressing, and shado beni chutney (shado beni being a leafy Trinidadian herb that is also known as culentro, Japanese saw leaf, or Mexican coriander).

You can pick and choose from toppings to place and layer as strategically as you like.

The move, of course, is to pile it all on. The result is a juicy, zesty mess of salt and vinegar, pineapple sweet, and spicy bite, which somehow still don't overpower the warm, flaky fish. It's all held together by that chewy soft dough.

The view of the beach at Maracas Bay while eating Richard's bake and shark sandwich.