A Week's Eats

While I was in Canada I spoke to a group of highschool students about the earthquake and about Haiti in general. They were super engaged and asked a lot of questions including, "What is Haitian food like and what do you eat?" Also, my mom mentioned recently that she worries we don't eat enough greens. So, this post is for you, Mom, and for anyone else that wonders what we, spoiled North Americans living in Haiti, eat on a day-to-day basis.

As a side note, we actually find it somewhat harder to eat according to our food values here. We love food and when we spend more time preparing our food, we can eat cheaper and better. Unfortunately we're usually very busy and we don't have consistent refrigeration. But, we do do lots of shopping in the market and try to eat as locally as possible (though after keeping track of what we've eaten for a week, I'm pretty shocked at the quantity of imported food that makes it into these here bellies!). Also, as a disclaimer I think I may have got some days mixed up 'cuz my "tracking" was on the back of an envelope.

Monday

• Breakfast: running late, egg sandwich at Epi Dor (basically a greasy omelet on baguette, with bacon if you swing that way, though I usually don't. Their eggs are almost certainly imported)
  
• Lunch at MCC: sandwiches (bread, sliced American, lettuce, tomato, mustard)
  
• Dinner: curried lentils with yogurt (before Haiti, we used to make our own yogurt. Now, I'm lucky if I remember to pick it up at the grocery store! Lentils do not grow here, nor do the various components of curry powder, but parsley came from our garden and tomatoes from the market)

Tuesday

• Breakfast: fried egg (local) on toast (locally made, but with imported wheat) with homemade mango jam
  
• Lunch at MCC: rice and goat sauce and salad, fresh passion fruit juice (all local I think)
  
• Dinner: eggplant coconut lime soup (local eggplant and lime, imported coconut milk - we do have a coconut tree in our yard, but making coconut milk is a laborious process, lemon grass from our garden)

Wednesday

• Breakfast: homemade granola (imported oats, flaxseed & cracked wheat, local honey, local almonds) with yogurt (local)
• Lunch at KPL: rice and beans, fish sauce, steamed carrots, fresh key lime juice (all local since that is KPL's - Support Local Production's - mantra and mission!)
• Dinner: homemade pizza (all ingredients for the dough imported, homemade tomato sauce with local tomatoes and oregano, thyme, basil and rosemary from our garden, imported mozzarella - before Haiti we used to make our own, but no time/source of fresh milk here, local green peppers, amaranth greens from our garden)

Thursday

• Breakfast: french toast (bread made in the Dominican Republic - can't buy whole wheat bread that's locally made, sliced bananas, Ben's homemade syrup)
• Lunch: Ben's wonder pasta satay with garden greens (spaghetti made locally of imported ingredients, local peanut butter, greens and hot pepper from our garden, imported sesame oil)
• Dinner: potato and turnip soup (everything local except for imported milk powder)

Friday:

• Breakfast: oatmeal (imported) with bananas and local almonds
• Lunch at MCC: tchaka (the most delicious Haitian soup of all made with red and black beans, pumpkin, scallions, cloves, garlic, green peppers, carrots, potatoes and corn)
• Dinner: homemade hummus (all imported ingredients except for onion), baba ghanoush (local eggplant, shallots and onion, parsley from our garden, imported tahini and olive oil), locally made pita bread (Haiti has a minority of folks of Lebanese descent)
  

Saturday:

• Breakfast: crepes with fruit salad of pineapple, papaya, mango, mint and banana (imported ingredients except for the eggs, local fruit, mint from garden)
• Lunch: crepes with arugula and parmesan (arugula from our garden, imported parmesan)
• Dinner: leftover hummus etc. This time Ben made the pita bread.

Sunday:

• Breakfast: dutch puff (local eggs, everything else imported), leftover fruit salad, local key lime, imported powdered sugar
• Lunch: tuna melts with watercress (bread imported from the DR, tuna imported,watercress and tomato from market, imported cheese)
  
• Dinner: Carrot ginger soup (local carrot and onion, imported ginger and garlic, imported milk powder)

So, there you have it. I kind of wish we had pictures of some of these meals or at least a picture of the market to show you, but you'll have to use your imagination.