One of the worst memories in Dave Kadarnauth’s life is eating the meal he was provided on an elementary school field trip.

“They gave us cold fried chicken,” he recalled. “It was disgusting.”

And while the cold poultry sticks out, Kadarnauth’s childhood in America is filled with memories of the horrid cuisine from New York City public schools, which he was always giving away to his classmate.

That’s because, before moving to Brooklyn in 1968, he was used to food prepared with fresh ingredients in his native Berbice, Guyana. And while his mother made sure he always came home to a homemade meal, there weren’t many other places to get a taste of home.

“We Guyanese, we have a lot of things going for us but we don’t showcase ourselves,” Kadarnauth said. “Our food is really good but we don’t have that presence to say ‘come try our food.’”

But now, Guyanese are the second-largest immigrant group in Queens and people can get more than their fill of that and other Caribbean fare throughout parts of Richmond Hill and Ozone Park.

Of course, many of them are on Little Guyana — a mile-long stretch of Liberty Avenue.

“There’s definitely a lot more now than there used to be,” Richard David, a Guyanese immigrant, said of eateries serving food from his native country.

One of the more well-known establishments is owned by Kadarnauth — Nest Restaurant & Bar, located at 125-17 101 Ave. in Richmond Hill.

“It’s just a great place to sit down, have a good time and have some good food,” David said.

On any given night, families from Guyana and neighboring countries — Trinidad & Tobago, Suriname and others — can be found dining on the restaurant side of Nest while others enjoy the bar scene.

Kadarnauth has been the owner of Nest —the former site of an Irish bar — for more than 10 years and took it over because at the time, there were still no restaurants serving Guyanese food and he wanted to show the cuisine off to the world.

“We need to promote ourselves,” he said. “And I think over the past 10 years I’ve taken it to a level, I won’t say fine dining but food cuisine that promotes Guyanese cooking.”

His extensive menu features recipes inspired by the many “aunties” in his life, mostly to remind younger Guyanese-Americans of their roots.

These were the types of cooks who used to measure everything by eye and go by how food looked or felt, rather than following instructions in a cookbook — i.e., good, old-fashioned home-style cooking.

“Those are the things I try to promote,” Kadarnauth said. “A lot of times we’re so busy tasting other cultures’ cuisines we forget about our own.”

But what is Guyanese cooking?

One look at Nest’s menu shows an international array of food items such as curry — including one called a “bhungul,” a dry curry rather than one served in a sauce —fried rice, lo mein, jerk chicken and more. One can even find black pudding, a traditional British food item, on the menu.

So why the influence from places all over the globe?

To answer that, one has to go back to the days of the slave trade. Guyana and neighboring islands were rich in sugar and natural resources — and when the British ruled half the world, they’d bring slaves and indentured servants to work the land.

“The British brought over Africans,” Kadarnauth said. “And when they abolished the slave trade, they started bringing in other sources of labor. They brought in other nationalities. Wherever they were in power, they would bring those people to do labor.”

And so Indians, Chinese and Portuguese people came to the island, as did the Dutch and Spaniards — and all put their mark on the culinary culture there. In the Nest kitchen, four chefs work on Indian meals while four work on the Chinese-inspired dishes.

Kadarnauth likened the food’s heritage to the relatively modern craze of fusion food — combining one cuisine with another.

“We’ve been doing that without even knowing it,” he said. “And that’s part of our culture. If you’re true Guyanese, odds are your mother knows how to make all of those.”

But don’t think any of these items are anything like you’ve had before — assuming you’ve never tasted Guyanese food.

The fried rice at Nest, for example, is seasoned with a special blend unlike anything used in Chinese restaurants, giving it a much more savory flavor.

Be sure to try it with some of Nest’s homemade sauces, which come in different levels of spiciness.

Or the aforementioned bhungul curry, which lifts the natural flavor of any meat, this reporter had it with lamb, instead of serving it in a sauce.

Nest is far from the only place one can experience this — one of the longest standing West Indian establishments sits in the heart of Little Guyana, Sybil’s Bakery & Restaurant, 132-17 Liberty Ave.

Here, one can get a plate of curry or some classic baked goods such as cassava pone, a cake made from cassava root, or, a personal favorite, saltfish and bake — salty fish, similar to cod, served on a roll.

Sybil’s started with a Guyanese woman selling traditional fare out of her Far Rockaway home and has since grown into a sort of dynasty — it’s often the first and last stop for Caribbean people visiting relatives in Queens, due to its proximity to John F. Kennedy International Airport.

Just walk down Liberty and you’ll find other spots, some dedicated solely to Guyanese-Chinese cooking.

Some examples include Kaietuer Express at 120-04 Liberty Ave., Three Sisters Liberty Bakery & Restaurant at 107-04 Liberty Ave. and Carifesta Restaurant at 126-15 Liberty Ave.

For those new to West Indian fare, some of these restaurants might sound strange.

David believes Guyanese cuisine in Queens and elsewhere in New York City suffers the same lack of exposure its people do.

“Much like Guyanese people ourselves, we’re not really putting our food out there for everybody to know about,” David said.

Part of the problem for Kadarnauth is the younger generation’s waning interest in home-cooked meals.

“They don’t know how to cook,” the restaurateur said.

And while one can walk down Liberty Avenue or Rockaway Boulevard to find delis and bodegas selling fresh food with which to make Guyanese dishes, Kadarnath said most wouldn’t know what to do with the peppers or cassava. He hopes to solve that problem by hosting cooking classes in the future.

“We have to keep that alive because once it’s gone, it’s gone forever,” he said.