I've been to Trinidad, and I was struck by that same similarity that you mentioned. It was a bit muddied, as I was there with a church group, and we were interfacing with hindus primarily, and some muslims, so my cultural perceptions were more framed within the paradigm of God, but I did notice it nonetheless.
Most every black Trini knows black pudding and callaloo, all creole cooking that people think comes from blacks and indians but is really Scotch-Irish food tweaked with caribe seasonings. I'm happy about people doing mission work there :-)