Haitian Cuisine

The Bethel Guest House treated us to breakfasts and suppers. We opted out of lunches to save money. By supper, we would be totally famished.

The breakfasts were basic...toast, pancakes, koolaid, and coffee each morning, except for the last morning, where they added fresh squeezed orange juice and a variety of fruits. Unfortunately, that would be the one morning that I had no appetite as I anticipated the day ahead. It was a pretty spread, though!

Joshua had something called Laboule for breakfast. It was a mushy, cinnamonish cereal type thing. He ate it! I tried it and it wasn't bad for mushy stuff.

The suppers were usually a meat dish (chicken, pork, or beef in a sauce), rice, a bean soupish thing, or noodles and peas, served with a bottle of hot sauce, bread, and a bottle of Coke...we were fascinated with the Coke. It was in old fashioned, really tall bottles. Most of the time it was served cold. Sometimes it was served with a glass of ice, and the first night we were ok with that. Then, the next day we saw where that ice came from (big blocks in the city that people would cut up) and from then on, we were good with no ice.


A plate of noodles and peas, and bean soupish rice stuff! I really wanted to mix them up a batch of fresh bread, bless their hearts! All of the bread was stale tasting, even though it was bought fresh from the market. It was best toasted.

I actually faired better than Steve at supper time. I thought it tasted good. Besides, if you add enough hot sauce (which I do...even at home!) it doesn't really matter. We had been advised to refrain from eating the meat, so my meat and potatoes man had a hard time being ok with just rice!

The last supper was AMAZING. They made a squashish casserole, beef from the market (which Steve caved and ate!), broccoli, french bread, fried plaintains....it was GREAT! We very much enjoyed it.

Every night they would have sheet cake minus the icing for dessert. This was one of our FAVORITE parts! Joshua wouldn't touch sweet stuff of any kind, so we would have cake and he would eat his buttery bread Daddy would make for him.

Joshua tried just about anything we'd put in his mouth. If he liked it, he'd motion for more, and if not, he'd shake his head no. As for any tummy troubles, the only time I felt wierd was after breakfast. I pretty much narrowed it down to too much sugar. I'm used to an artificial sweetener, and the sugar in the breakfast made me feel a bit icky for a bit, but it wore off.
We were honored and blessed for sure at our service and the quality of food. We were most blessed to watch Joshua enjoy things that aren't an everyday occurence at the O. I think we'll have a fine eater on our hands!