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Haitian Foodways

National

⚠ THE FIRST BLACK REPUBLIC, AND ITS FOOD SAYS SO. Haiti is the only state created by a successful revolution of enslaved people, and the food of 1 JANUARY — SOUP JOUMOU, the squash soup that the French forbade the enslaved to eat and that Haitians have eaten every Independence Day since 1804 — is the clearest example anywhere of a dish that IS a political act. Beyond it: EPIS, the green seasoning base in every kitchen; GRIOT, twice-cooked pork; PIKLIZ, the fierce pickled cabbage; DIRI AK PWA and DIRI DJONDJON, black rice from a wild mushroom; LEGIM; TASO; LALO; bannann peze; and a bakery of pen patat and dous makos. ⚠ TEN DEPARTMENTS, and the food is not the same in Cap-Haïtien and Jacmel.

Atlas — where and when

Where in the world

Communities and languages

  • Haitians community documented

Languages: Haitian Creole, French

Related foodways

This foodway relates to

  • related to African Diaspora Foodways documented
  • related to Dominican Cuisine documented

    ⚠ One island, two countries, a shared border food economy and a documented history of anti-Haitian violence. Kept as separate canonical systems.

  • related to French documented

    Saint-Domingue was French; the vocabulary, the bakery and some technique come through that. ⚠ Haitian food is not French Caribbean cuisine.

Recorded as relating to this foodway

  • related to Congrí, Moros and the Cuban Plate probable

    ⚠ Congrí is generally traced to Haitian Creole "kongo ak diri" and to the Haitian arrival in the Oriente. Widely reported, not conclusively documented.

  • related to Kwéyòl Foodways documented

    Both are French-lexifier creoles of the Caribbean; ⚠ related languages, separate cuisines.

Regional cuisines

Recipes

No recipes are filed under this cuisine yet.