The Food Issue

Rice, beans, spicy meatballs, and cabbage

No travel blog of Elaine Siew would be complete without a rundown of the local cuisine!

Wednesday morning crepes!

Fiffy's pizza

We have been very lucky to have 3 square meals prepared for us every day by the talented cook on the compound, Fiffy, and her team of lovely ladies.  After just a few weeks, we had memorized the weekly food schedule that Fiffy prepares pretty consistently.  I know the best night for dinner is Monday – shepherd’s pie (pate chinoise - it's Chinese in Haiti, not Irish!) – or maybe Friday – Haitian pizza! (The crust is like flaky pie crust, mmm...) And everyone loves Wednesday breakfast – crepes!  Other delicious breakfasts include omelettes/fried eggs and toast, porridge (which tastes like dessert for breakfast), and Fiffy’s special caramelized French toast. Lunch is my absolute favorite meal of the day – huge and hearty Haitian comfort food stuff.  Maybe too heavy for people who enjoy light lunches or fresher foods in the heat, but I love it – lots of rice and beans, slow-cooked meats, veggies, and plenty of saturated fat :)  Other dinners include “fried night” (fried plantains, potatoes, yucca, with meat chili), pasta with spicy meat sauce, potato and hot dog stew – and always accompanied by salad with Fiffy’s secret-recipe salad dressing.  There really isn’t anything on the menu for any meals that I don’t like – everything is super flavorful, with lots of cloves and peppers.  And whoever in the group volunteered to dole out servings had to become very familiar with my “Elaine-size portions.” 

An Elaine-size portion of Shepherd's Pie

Rice & beans, chicken, spicy beets

So with all these wonderful prepaid meals, I’ve only had a few meals out.  The crazy-looking stew that looks like something out of a witch’s cauldron is called bouillon – with potatoes, boiled plantains, goat meat, and finger-like dumplings.  It’s quite tasty and filling, and a staple of the Haitian diet here.  And then there is the street food – ahh, my beloved street food.  Everywhere I go, there is nothing I love more than eating food on the street.  In the past few weeks, I’ve made a habit of eating something off the street every day.  You’ll find delicious fritage stands everywhere – ladies who sell a variety of fried foods, like pressed plantains, akra (little fry-shape dough), chicken, boulettes, and empanada-like patties filled with veggies and a bit of meat.  They serve them all with this great piklis – a cabbage and chili pepper slaw.  I’ve also just discovered bonbons at street vendors, which are sweet cookies or bars baked with coconut.  And then everywhere you go in the world, there’s always some kind of ubiquitous food for sale on every block, like the Fanmilk carts in Togo and Ghana, or chai tea in India.  Here, it’s packaged cookies of different varieties that cost about a quarter or less, and funny enough are all imported from India.  You are guaranteed to find cookies everywhere you look, so as you can imagine, I’ve been eating a lot of cookies.

Bouillon

Then there’s the delicious island fruit in season.  There are beautiful fruit trees all over this region.  I’ve been eating mangoes all summer (and there are so many different kinds of mangoes), and it’s so wonderful to live in a place where you can eat fruits like avocadoes and starfruit that are grown locally instead of imported from far away.  I’ve also been able to try some new delicious fruits like kanep (a sweet a sour shelled berry that seems like a cousin of the longan), breadfruit (tastes like a potato when cooked), abrico (like a less sweet mix of mango and papaya), and soursop (a strang-looking but delicious fruit with white, squishy flesh that kind of reminds me of peach yogurt). 

Rice, mashed vegetables, and beef stew

Needless to say, I will really miss the food here.  Ironically enough, and shamefully, I’m here to do a malnutrition study yet I can’t stop stuffing my face.  I am happy about the fact that there are a lot of Haitian eateries in parts of Boston.  Now I just need to see how many mangoes I can fit in my suitcase…

:)