In the late 1990s, the food in Haiti was probably the best in the Caribbean, and it was considered as such. There were the best French-Caribbean Fusion restaurants in Petitionville with amazing seafood, and there was quality street food and diner food in Port-au-Prince. The Lambi (conch) was the best I’ve ever had, and the dish with rice cooked in the juice of those special mushrooms was outstanding – Djon Djon they call it. Breakfast with eggs and “combi hash” is memorable. Griot (with sour oranges) was another option, and there I had the best (small) turkey I ever ate in my life, “dinde,” as it was called in French. The food was really the reason to visit Haiti, at least if you have foreign dollars to spend.
As for the poor Haitians, and there are many of them, they eat dirty cakes [bonbon tè]mixed with oil and salt, it’s really something.
Haitian food in the United States can be decent, but it’s very cheap. The conch has never really been fresh. The carbohydrate-heavy servings are mostly plantains and rice. Stews can be good, but there isn’t a lot of flavor. It’s worth eating such Haitian food once or twice a year, partly for the nostalgia value, but it’s not something I really crave. I would recommend a sociological look at those restaurants, including their reactions to you.
Maybe Brooklyn has the best Haitian food in the country? Some of the neighborhoods in North Miami are full of infrastructure, not that many Haitians seem to live in Los Angeles. Maryland has a few decent places, and a few times I had Haitian snacks for late night Haitian concerts there. Maybe Florida, but not Little Haiti, would be another option, as I’ve had great Haitian food in Tampa and Orlando.
Addendum: The Chris Rufo bounty (stock expands!) released a video of some Africans roasting a cat, or is it a chicken?, but so far nothing of the Haitians.
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