Cuisine Creole: Accra, Griots & Pikliz
Haitian cuisine/recipes include many of the ingredients that we use on a regular basis in Canada, as well as a number of tropical vegetables and/or fruits that can only be found at specialty shops. A chain of grocery stores in the east and north end of the city is inter Marche/4 Frères. With18 locations, they cleverly allow their franchise owners/managers to adapt to their individual community's needs and wants in order to satisfy the tastes and requirements for creating traditional home-cooked meals.
Some of Haitians' favourite meals prepared using not easily found or unusual ingredients or are Hatiian Soup, Accra, Griots and Pikliz:
Haitian Soup (Boillion) is a soup that combines cubed beef with limes, spinach, malanga and other vegetables including bonitas (yams) as well as our well-known sweet potato and more.
Accra,
a popular bean fritter, requires Malanga (Eddoe) which is a tropical vegetable, a variety
of Colocasia esculenta, related to
Taro (Dasheen). It is used for its thickened stems. It has smaller roots than Taro, has an acrid taste and must
be cooked with care. Young leaves
can also be cooked and eaten but are somewhat acrid as well. Eddoes, developed in China and Japan,
was introduced from there to the West Indies and is sometimes called
"Chinese eddoes".
(Image source: Flickr)
Griots,
fried, glazed pork, is one of Haiti's most popular dishes. This popular dish is invariably served
at parties and at family gatherings.
Its cubed pork is soaked in a sour orange marinade and then roasted
slowly until tender. The tender
morsels are then caramelized and mix with a combination of orange and lime
juice, or sour orange juice.
Pikliz, is a combination of spicy, pickled vegetables that every Haitian home has on hand. Carrots, cabbage, chillies and other vegetables are soaked in vinegar creating a relish similar to what Americans refer to as chow-chow. This crunchy salad is served as a side dish in Haitian meals. The flavoured vinegar is frequently used in marinades or to give dishes a spicy-sour punch. In order to celebrate special occasions and satisfy that sweet-tooth we all give in to on occasion, Patisserie Le Savoir-Faire on Henri Bourassa East creates the treats many Montreal Haitians are happy to snap up.
When seeking a good restaurant that serves the best good, old-fashioned
as well as unique Haitian cuisine hands down, the most recommended is La
Fourchette Antillaise. Boasting a superb Creole Chicken this restaurant is a
favourite amongst not only Haitians but those from other islands in the
Caribbean as well as those Montréalers fortunate enough to have discovered
it.
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