What is Haitian food? Which Haitian dishes should you seek out and what sort of flavors and spices might you find when you visit the country? We went to Haiti to find out. This Haitian Food and Culinary Travel Guide shares our favorite Haitian dishes, snacks, desserts, drinks and where to find them.
Before traveling to Haiti, I had little concept of Haitian food. Sure, I had a sense of what it could be: island-informed, African-influenced, of Caribbean character, maybe even a hint of French.
As with the country’s language, Haitian food has a sense of the Crèole, that is a blend of influences. Mixed roots and spices, basic yet zippy, simple and grounded by the reality of the tropics and the back-story of its African heritage, yet touched with a hint of French complexity.
Haitian Main Dishes
For us, food offers one of the most enjoyable contexts through which to understand a place. As we seek out certain types of dishes, we find ourselves in new experiences of all sorts.
During our travels in Haiti we sampled food that ranged from street food to family meals to high end restaurants, and a bit of everything in-between. What you’ll find below is an overview of all that we ate and discovered culinarily while in Haiti. We hope that it may lead you to your own eating — or cooking — adventures.
Poulet Aux Noix (Chicken and Cashew Nuts)
Also known as poul ak nwa , this is a rich northern Haiti specialty of chicken cooked in a tomato-based sauce with cashew nuts that you’ll most likely find in and around the town of Cap-Haïtien. Where to get it: Lakou Lakay Cultural Center in the town of Milot near Sans Souci Palace.
How to make it: This dish is best when you can let the chicken sit overnight in a sour orange (or orange and lime juice combination if you can’t get your hands on sour oranges) marinade and then cook it the next day until it is so tender that the chicken meat falls right off the bones. Here’s a poulet aux noix recipe to try out.
Mayi Moulen ak Sòs Pwa, Poul an Sòs (cornmeal with beans and stewed chicken)
Stews are common in Haiti. Served on top of either cornmeal or rice, they are hearty, too. What makes Haitian stews special is the hint of warm sweet spices like clove and star anise. Where to get it: An excellent example of Haitian stew can be had from the street food woman at the end of the alleyway at Atis Rezistans (Grande Rue in Port-au-Prince). A single portion ($2) will be enough to feed two hungry people.
