Sip a holiday taste of Trinidad and Tobago with the festive Flambo Crème

I’m generally not a dessert martini kind of guy. The moody Don, a Caribbean riff on an old-fashioned made with Zaya rum, was the more expected choice for me at Flambo, the Trinidadian restaurant that moved to Center City this fall after five years on North Broad Street. And that is exactly how the evening got started on South 13th Street in the lightly renovated former IndeBlue space, where we dove into pholourie beignets with tamarind dip, thick green bowls of callaloo, soy-roasted pork and crisply fried saheena split pea fritters wrapped in taro root leaves perfumed with Indian spice.

The distinctive blend of Caribbean, Indian, and Chinese flavors that characterize the culture of Trinidad and Tobago was on full display with chef and co-owner Anthony Logan’s classic menu, which also brought curried goat, brown-stewed chicken, and a deep-fried escoveitch whole red snapper to the table along with shredded “buss-up-shot” paratha bread for sopping-up the sauces.

But, with the lingering spice of Flambo’s potent house habanero hot sauce still glowing on my lips by the meal’s end, the idea of something sweet was enticing. I was too full for an actual dessert. But how about a Flambo Crème?

I raised an eyebrow at the corny prospect of a dessert martini. But our server was so persuasive as she described their version of ponche de crème, the traditional creamy holiday rum punch that is a Trinidadian cousin to Puerto Rican coquito or Venezuelan ponche crema. Logan’s son, co-owner and head mixologist Kevin Ramlochan blends two kinds of rum (dark spiced and overproof white) with a creamy base of coconut and evaporated milk and dusted with nutmeg. But it was Ramlochan’s extra-cheerful holiday flair — the rim edged with marshmallow fluff and crushed peppermints, a dusting of red sugar snow, and candy cane garnish going full-on Santa’s Bar — that finally got me in the holiday spirit to take a sip. It was rich, but not too thick. The minty nutmeg spice was in harmony with the boozy kick. And so I took another sip. And another. Sluurrrrp. Until it was gone. A Caribbean Christmas on South 13th Street is alive and well.

Flambo Crème, $16, Flambo Caribbean Restaurant, 205 S. 13th St., 267-639-5179; flamboh.com