Haiti - 20th December 2002

From an email sent to my followers:

Dearest readers,

Another really interesting dinner last night even if not particularly successful!

For all those that aren't sure of it's location, Haiti is the west part of a Caribbean island, south east of Cuba.  The other half of the island is occupied by the Dominican Republic.  What most people don't realize is that unfortunately Haiti is the poorest country of the western hemisphere and has significant political problems.... many Haitians attempt to land in US coasts every week.  A little bit like Albanians are doing now in Italy in someways.

On the other hand I hear - given that I've never been there - that it is a really beautiful island.  I attach a photo of the mountains (from google, not mine):



But moving on to the main topic: the cuisine of Haiti.  My menu choice this week was dictated unfortunately by lack of time (believe it or not) and the result wasn't as good as other alphabetical dinners (for example the Fijian dinners that yielded very high scores).  Moreover the fact that the only person with me at dinner was Eric (so the only judge) didn't help, since he's rather stingy with scores. 

But enough talk and let's move to the menu and the scores: 

Appetizer:
Hot Avocado Bowls 6.  A hot sauce poured over an avocado half.  The main comment from Eric was that it was too liquid but the stuffing was rather flavorful.

Main Course:
Tassot (Fried beef) served with mixed salad: 7.5. This was beef cubes marinated and cooked in a pan and then fried. Perhaps they were a bit too greasy but this was primarily due to my using a too small pan and so they were a bit crowded for the large quantity I put in.

Dessert:
Mango Pie: no score... because even though I had intended to make this, I didn't have time so instead I purchased an Haagen Daaz mango sorbet... but an interesting recipe, perhaps another time.

We drank the same wine as last week.  Eric bought a case of it.  Windmill Estate, Zinfandel Old Vine, CA 2011.

This is all, stay tuned for next week as we're having an Icelandic Christmas!

PS: if santa brings me a digital camera, I'll start sending you photos of the dishes too...