A Lil’ Taste of Haiti | Education Abroad GeoBlog

My host family had been so good to me. I feel apart of the family. We have our little inside jokes, we spend hours after dinner just talking about life, and of course we go out together. My host family always asks me about my Haitian background. I explained and showed them different dishes, our carnival attire, and I had them listen to “Kompa” (our genre of music).

I decided to give them a Lil’ Taste of Haiti. My brother was leaving for vacation in a couple of days, so we planned to have dinner the night before he left.

What was on the menu?

Spiced Baked Chicken, Banan Pez� (Fried Plantains) and Vegetable Rice. And for dessert: Mango Cr�me.

The day before the dinner I went food shopping with my host mom. We bought all the ingredients. It was extremely hard to find plantains. My host mom hasn’t even heard of them. In our first outing we didn’t find them at the grocery store. But, the next day she surprised me with six plantains. She went a little outside of Besan�on to find them! She told me she was determined to find them because I told her a Haitian dish is not complete if there aren’t any fried plantains! The night before, I removed the skin from the chicken and seasoned it.

My host dad and mom were appalled at my technique of removing the skin of the chicken.

The next day after class, I went to go buy mangoes and whipped cream at Monoprix for the “Mango Cr�me.” When I got home, I cut up the mangoes and put them in the freezer for later that night. I saved a couple of slices to decorate the dessert.

We usually eat dinner at 7:30P.M. So, around 6PM my host mom and I started preparing dinner. She was my “sous-chef” for the night. I started with the chicken. I seared the chicken on both sides in some oil, then put it under the oven.

We then attacked the rice. In Haitian Cuisine, we add coconut milk to our rice. We boiled the green peas, carrots, and corn in half water, half coconut milk with some spices. We then added the rice.

When the rice was almost cooked we started the preparations for the fried plantains. My host mom had never seen or felt a plantain before. She was so fascinated by it’s texture. We peeled the skin off of the plantains and in a bowl to the side we mix cold water, salt, and lime juice. I then cut the plantains at an angle and had them fry for the first time. After the first fry, we took them out and pressed them with the bottom of a jar. We then dipped them in the water prepared in the bowl and fried them a second time.

My host mom loves them! My host mom couldn’t stop eating them! 🙂

Next we tackled the Mango Cr�me. We put the frozen mangoes in the mixer with some milk and heavy cream, some cinnamon and nutmeg powder, and some lime zest.

My host family loved the texture of the dessert. They also loved the mixed of flavors, the sweet from the mango and the little sour from the lime zest. It was an explosion of new flavors for them.

It was a great experience sharing my Haitian culture with my host family. I played Kompa the whole night! It was fulfilling that they appreciated the cuisine and of course loved it! 🙂

My host sister Emmanuelle loved her first taste of Haiti! 🙂

Location: Besançon, France

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