Haiti

🇭🇹Haiti

Akasan

Fine cornmeal cooked out with milk, star anise, cinnamon and vanilla into a thick, drinkable porridge served hot in the morning.

🇭🇹Haiti

Akra

Grated malanga root beaten with epis, scotch bonnet and a little flour, then dropped in spoonfuls into hot oil.

🇭🇹Haiti

Bonbon Amidon

Cassava starch beaten with butter, sugar and lime zest into a pale cookie that dissolves the moment it touches the tongue.

🇭🇹Haiti

Bonbon Siwo

Dark, chewy spice cake made with cane syrup, ginger, cinnamon and star anise, cut into thick squares.

🇭🇹Haiti

Bouyon Haïtien

Bouyon

Saturday soup of beef, dumplings, yam, malanga, plantain and greens in a heavily seasoned broth, cooked in one pot all morning.

🇨🇴La Ceiba, Colombia

Casabe

A thin, crispy yuca flatbread of indigenous Amazonian origin, made from grated, pressed, and toasted bitter yuca. A staple accompaniment to fish and stews.

🇭🇹Haiti

Chokola Peyi

Hand-ground Haitian cacao boiled with milk, sugar and warm spices into a grainy hot chocolate drunk at breakfast.

🇭🇹Northern Haiti, Haiti

Diri ak Djon Djon

Rice steeped in the black liquor of dried djon djon mushrooms until it turns near-black, cooked with lima beans and shrimp.

🇭🇹Haiti

Diri Kole ak Pwa

Rice and red kidney beans cooked together in the bean liquor with epis, thyme and a whole scotch bonnet dropped in unbroken.

🇭🇹Northern Haiti, Haiti

Djon Djon

Tiny black mushrooms that grow only in a few parts of northern Haiti, dried and soaked to make a black cooking liquor.

🇭🇹Haiti

Doukounou

Fresh corn grated with coconut milk, sugar and cinnamon, tied in a banana leaf and boiled into a soft sweet block.

🇭🇹Haiti

Dous Kokoye

Shaved coconut boiled with sugar and ginger until it thickens and sets into a chewy, grainy fudge.

🇭🇹Petit-Goâve, Haiti

Dous Makòs

Layered fudge of condensed milk in cream, pink and brown stripes, invented at Petit-Goâve and sold in cellophane-wrapped bricks.

🇭🇹Haiti

Epis

A wet green base of parsley, thyme, spring onion, garlic, peppers, cloves and sour orange, blended and kept in the fridge for every dish.

🇭🇹Haiti

Espageti

Haitian spaghetti, a boldly seasoned breakfast dish of spaghetti in a tomato sauce with smoked herring, hot peppers, and epise (Haitian seasoning blend).

🇭🇹Haiti

Fresko

Ice shaved by hand from a block with a metal plane, packed into a cup and drenched in coloured fruit syrups and condensed milk.

🇭🇹Haiti

Griot

Griyo

Pork shoulder marinated in sour orange, epis and scotch bonnet, braised until tender and then fried hard so the outside caramelises.

🇭🇹Haiti

Haitian Coffee

Kafe ayisyen

Arabica grown in shade under mango and citrus in the mountains of the south and north, roasted very dark and brewed strong through a cloth sock.

🇭🇹Haiti

Kleren

Raw cane-juice spirit distilled at hundreds of small mills, sold by the jug and often infused with bark, herbs or fruit in the bottle.

🇭🇹Jérémie, Haiti

Konparèt

A dense coconut, ginger and spice bread from Jérémie, keeping for weeks and traditionally carried on long journeys.

🇭🇹Haiti

Kremas

Condensed and evaporated milk, cream of coconut, lime zest, vanilla and nutmeg blended with rum into a thick sweet cream, chilled and poured in small glasses.

🇭🇹Haiti

Labouyi Bannann

Green plantain grated to a purée and cooked with milk, cinnamon, star anise and salt into a thick breakfast porridge.

🇭🇹Haiti

Lalo

Jute leaves cooked down to a dark, slippery stew with beef, crab and blue crab claws, the signature dish of the Artibonite valley.

🇭🇹Haiti

Lambi

Lanbi

Queen conch pounded flat, then either stewed in creole sauce, grilled over charcoal or fried in strips.

🇭🇹Haiti

Legim

Aubergine, chayote, cabbage, spinach and carrot cooked down for hours with beef or crab until the vegetables collapse into a thick dark purée.

🇭🇹Haiti

Makawoni au Graten

Rigatoni baked with evaporated milk, butter and a great deal of processed and cheddar cheese until the top browns and the inside sets firm.

🇩🇴Dominican Republic

Mambá

Manba

A Dominican spicy peanut butter of ground peanuts, oil, and hot pepper, eaten with casabe. A rustic, traditional spread from the northwest, of African origin.

🇭🇹Haiti

Marinad

A loose seasoned batter, sometimes with salt cod or chicken folded through, spooned into oil into soft dumpling-like fritters.

🇭🇹Haiti

Mayi Moulen

Cornmeal cooked out with beans, coconut milk or just water and salt, served under a bean sauce or with fried fish.

🇭🇹Haiti

Pate Kode

Pate kòde

Half-moon of flaky pastry stuffed with spiced ground beef, salted herring or chicken, deep-fried and eaten from paper.

🇭🇹Haiti

Pen Patat

Grated sweet potato, banana, coconut milk, evaporated milk and spice baked slowly into a dense, sticky, dark pudding-cake.

🇭🇹Haiti

Pikliz

Shredded cabbage, carrot, onion and scotch bonnet packed into a jar of vinegar with cloves and left to sharpen for days.

🇭🇹Northern Haiti, Haiti

Poul ak Nwa

Chicken stewed in a cashew sauce, a dish of the north around Cap-Haïtien where the cashew trees grow.

🇭🇹Haiti

Poul nan Sos

Chicken washed in sour orange, seasoned with epis, browned and then simmered in a tomato and pepper sauce with olives.

🇭🇹Haiti

Pâté Haïtien

Pate ayisyen

Baked puff-pastry parcel of ground beef, cod or chicken, sold from bakery windows and eaten standing up at any hour.

🇭🇹Haiti

Rapadou

Cane juice boiled down and poured into moulds to set into hard dark blocks, wrapped in dried banana leaf and sold at every market.