Haitian Beatz

In a recent online discussion, a young lady posted something along the lines of: how disgusting certain Haitian foods were. She went on to ask the message board members to list some Haitian foods that they did not like. Ordinarily, I probably would have taken the post very lightly and added my own list of

unappreciated foods. However, upon reading her list, the only thing that came over me was this overwhelming sense of chagrin. Her list included items such as Tchaka, Pitimi, ble, Bouillon and many other things that I consider almost delicacies and gourmet when it comes to Haitian cuisine. These things are so rare to me these days that at times I would pay almost any price for a taste (by any price I mean, under $19.99).

So upon reading the posting, rather than my usual humor filled answer, I got defensive. I felt an attack on these foods, was an attack on our culture. How can someone not like ble? Ble is my caviar I thought! That’s how excited I get when someone says they have ble.  Last year I catered an event for 1,000 plus people in NYC, and guess what I served the 99.99999% none Haitian crowd? A nice bulgur wheat salad with cucumber. Translation: ble. And they loved it. So how can we not love it?