Haitian Dining
There is one food group in Haiti: STARCH. You may think that starch can consist of whole grains, flour, potatoes, rice, some vegetables perhaps, pasta etc. You may even think, gosh, I love starch that sounds like a great excuse to be off my Atkins diet. Well it is not so great, let me tell you. Here is a sample dinner experience, and it is very representative of a typical lunch OR dinner.
The dinner bell is rung by Se Julliana, meaning everyone needs to come into the community dining room. We stand behind our chairs until most people show up, and then we sing a prayer, it goes as follows:
Then everyone takes their plate, and turns around to the “buffet” style set up and this is the spread: spaghetti with oil, rice with beans, white wonder bread, and a hotdog. LOL who eats pasta and rice in one sitting? The Haitians do, and they also like putting ketchup on the whole mess, mixing in a hotdog, and then using the bread to scoop it up.
Rice and beans are served at every meal, sometimes just the rice actually. This is very tasty, and the seasoning used is very good, however this is not healthy at all. I have been on a no carbohydrate diet for almost 8 months, and this is KILLING me. Ok, I’m being dramatic, but you can only eat rice and beans, pasta, and white bread so much.

I also lied about there only being one food group in Haiti, there is one more: FAT. Haitians looooove fried food, and everything that is served warm is fried in oil. Everything is fried: chicken, plantains, okra, onions, potatoes. They also add oil to everything because they think they need the extra calories. Oil is added to tomato sauce, rice, eggs, spaghetti, even hot spiced chocolate that is sometimes served for breakfast. The amount of fried breading on certain things that could be healthy negates any nutritional value or the food item. For example, dinner last night consisted of fried okra (chopped up okra pieces mixed with breading and then fried), fried plantains, fried chicken, boiled cabbage, and coleslaw mixed with habenaro peppers, pikles. Because the fried food is cheaper and tastier according to some, that is the “main course”, the non fried food was supplemental so its hard to make a complete meal out of the healthy stuff. Needless to say, you feel greasy and sluggish after eating that stuff.

Favorite condiments for the Haitians consist of sugar, ketchup, Louisiana hot sauce, and mayonnaise. Now the latter deserves some attention, as there is no system of refrigeration here. I really just don’t want to think about it. When cold veggies are served, like carrots, beets, and potatoes, they are mixed with a nice thick layer of mayo. It is so nasty. There truly is no alternative, as we are not allowed to make our own food, and the concept of made to order is not something they “do” here.

Snacks sold on the street consist of fried banana chips, beignets (doughnuts), and some other interesting looking concoctions which I have begun to try slowly. After eating food prepared at the market (risky I know), you have to wait overnight to see how your body can "handle it" so to speak. Thus far, Haitian food 2, Erin 1. A more safe choice are the numerous candies and packaged crackers and shortbread cookies. If you would like straight suger in a more healthy from, you can opt for picking a mango off the tree as a snack. The mangos are sooooo good, as are the sweet green bananas.