La Cuisine des Antilles (Cuisine of the Antilles) Martinique and Guadeloupe

    

        A little over a month ago, I returned from a magical two week vacation/University business trip to the French West Indies or, the lower Antilles islands of the Caribbean, specifically Martinique and Guadeloupe. It all began during my French-Caribbean Literature class where we read a massive amount of work by poet and Négritude co-founder Aimé Césaire (The amount of Césaire literature we read in class made a LOT of sense when we got to Martinique, but that's to be revealed later). When spring broke, a group of wonderful students from AMEP (Association Martiniquaise d'Education Populaire) came to the States and visited Howard University where we hosted them for a day. We enjoyed them so much we decided to go visit them in Martinique and also try to establish an exchange program between Howard University and the Université des Antilles et de la Guyane (UAG). We put on our artillery uniforms and marched to the A Building at Howard University and asked for money to go. After weeks of follow up emails, phone calls and impromptu office visits, we managed to secure the funds for the trip.



 Martinique.

      This island may as well be known as "Aimé Césaire-land", there are pictures of this man EVERYWHERE! The airport is named after him AND we went to see a play based on a poem he wrote in an "Aimé Césaire" theater. He is definitely their hometown hero! Either way, the Martinican land, people and culture are beautiful and amazing. It was so intriguing to see brown skinned people and listen to them speak their native language of French. And, because Martinique and Guadeloupe (along with French Guyana) are territories of France, so was their lifestyle. Their food was like a  mix of French and Louisiana Creole. For breakfast, we had baguettes with Nutella and hot chocolate. At my host family's house, I woke up to the sounds of fighting roosters, where I also find out those suckers crow all day, not just in the morning!) We slept under mosquito nets At Tati Marie- Élise's, a fabulous woman was awarded a prestigious Légion d’honneur (Legion of Honor) by France. Every get together (party, kid birthday, religious holiday) was celebrated with lots of people, delicious Kreyol food and rum. Lots and lots of RUM! In keeping his promise to always provide a good time, it was thanks to rum that we witnessed our upstanding professor get loose (and LOW) on the dance floor! We met lots of great people including many members of our Professor's family, University and high school students, authors, government officials and random people who heard speaking English and wanted to practice. We even learned some of their Antillean Kreyol. At the moment I can only recall "Mwen pa sa parle Kreyol" which means "I don't speak Kreyol" so there you have it...I'm a polyglot :o) My favorite Antillean food is definitely gonna be the "accras", a fritter. We firsts had "accras de morue" which is codfish fritter but THEN we had the overwhelming pleasure of running into "accras de crevette"... SHRIMP fritters! I ate so many fritters at the Francois house, I should have been helping with the dishes. And it didn't help that they also served a delectable thick yellow cale with a layer of banana jam between the cake and its crust. It. was. DELICIOUS. My mouth is watering just typing about it. (By the way, Dimitri if you're reading this, tell your mom my email inbox is still waiting for those recipes...whenever she's ready :o) Definitely, Martinique's best features are those of their origin. The "métissage" of Antillean (Caribbean) culture with the French is what makes Martinican culture so exciting.

 Guadeloupe.

     We spent a few days during the latter half of our trip in the neighboring island of Guadeloupe, also a French territory. My colleagues and I felt a little more at home here because (1) we had an entire apartment to ourselves, thanks to our professor's family and (2) Guadeloupean culture was a little more Caribbean than French so we all felt a little less like outsiders. We also met with the UAG students at the Guadeloupe campus where, among other things, I learned about a local treat called "bokit".

     A "bokit" is a hot sandwich served on "agoulou", a warm chewy bread that LOOKS like a pita pocket. We found a little park near our apartment that had vendors, live music, and kids playing-- all at 11pm on a Sunday. Like we were warned, the line at the bokit stand was long and the types of bokit VARY! They had dozens of toppings but I played it safe and got one with steak, egg and chesse. It was DEE-licious and kinda reminded me of a breakfast sandwich. We also had lunch at a trendy little restaurant whose name I have NO IDEA of because there was no sign on the building. Just know that everything else was on. point. Food. Decor. Music selection...ON POINT!

       We walked in this "hole in the wall" to find small but quaintly decorated white paradise bumping D'Angelo. Yes....D'ANGELO. A mixtape of live covers and songs from his albums. I was so pleased (Color Purple voice). When we saw/tasted our food, I was looking around for St. Peter. It was perfect! I ordered the stewed goat. Erica and Brandon ordered the tandoori chicken, of which Erica labeled "the best tandoori she'd ever had"and she's had her share of tandoori. Erica, the trip's resident picky eater (love you Erica!) even dubbed this the best meal of our entire trip. I was forced to oblige. I wish I had gotten a picture of the building or asked our waiter the name of the place. Everything was delightful.

      Needless to say, I greatly enjoyed my trip to the Antilles. It was the best trip I've been on in my 22 years and I hope to be able to experience other countries this way. BUT I also think that Martinique and Guadeloupe will hold a special place in me forever. I've already settled on buying a home there some day. If you know or want to learn French, go visit! I think you'll enjoy it :o) 

***À ma famille martiniquaise*** 

De nouveau, je crois que je suis vraiment Martiniquaise et à présent

 j'attends avec impatience mon retour :o) 

  A la prochaine fois!

On The Border Mexican Restaurant (CT)

Remember that other HORRIBLE Mexican restaurant that I mentioned the other day? The crappy one with the crappy service? Yeah, well this place was the complete OPPOSITE of that :o) And I'm still disappointed that a smaller, more authentic restaurant with Mexicans in the kitchen would allow themselves to be showed up by a chain but they did. The chain? On The Border Mexican Grill and Cantina. My particular visit was the Orange, CT location (random, I know).

I'm in Connecticut because I'm visiting my old college suitemate, DeAndra. I finally got in at like 4pm and hadn't eaten all day so we were looking for cheap and delicious food. And cheap and delicious, we found. Our waitress attended to us immediately and was better than great the entire time we were there. We got there before 7pm which meant we made it for Happy Hour! Appetizers and drinks were half price so my ass got two mango and passionfruit margaritas! Why not? Little did I know, they were massive. They came with hot chips and salsa, as they should! (I forgot to mention at Mixtec, our rude waitress had the nerve to tell us that chips and salsa were not free, we had to order that travesty of a dish as an appetizer). Adding to my excitement, they hand press their tortilla chips right there in the restaurant! Fresh chips, fresh salsa, fresh guac and balling ass Margaritas= an amazing intro to On The Border. I was ecstatic, because I only saw my experience getting better. To maximize, I went ahead and asked the waitress what was good, specifically the Dos Equis fish tacos (I've been meaning to try them for awhile now). The waitress answered "Oh my God, I can't even, oh my God!". That was all I needed to hear. DeAndra got beef brisket tacos and her fiance Michael got the taco salad. About 15 mins later, our waitress arrived with our plates and everything was GREAT! She was NOT LYING about those fish tacos! They were cooked in Dos Equis beer batter and the fish was flaky and delicious. It was served on a grilled tortilla with cheese, shredded cabbage and a really tasty chipotle ranch-ish sauce that complimented very well. DeAndra's beef brisket tacos came with little "onion strings" kinda like thin onion rings that she SMASHED so I'm assuming they were tasty. By the time I looked over at Mike's taco salad, it was nonexistent. Yeah.

(These aren't the ACTUAL tacos I had. I couldn't get pics so I wanted to provide a close visual)

So, yeah, I don't really have much else to say other than On The Border is the shit. For real. I overindulged on chips and salsa so by the time my fish tacos got there, I was full. Thus, we packed everything up for a round two later that evening. We were planning on having our friend Allen* over and I figured I'd finish enjoying them then. Not. NOT! Remember I said i had two massive mango margaritas? Yeah, well those shits set in by the time we were leaving. I cool sailed out of there, praising our waitress for her good service on the way, and forgot all the food on the table. (As a matter of fact, I'm writing this post right now hungry as shit.)

Final thoughts: GO TO ON THE BORDER! NOW! Seriously, treat yourself. You deserve it :o)

Couldn't Get It Up...

(CGIU posts are designed to point out the restaurants that failed to satisfy me during my visit, thus, I think the title serves correct)

It's funny, I was just thinking these posts are probably getting boring. I figured I could only talk about delicious food for so long before it became a "same sh**, different day" situation. In the event that this true, today's post will be brand new sh** on a totally different day, thus the "couldn't get it up" category. Today's failure of a meal came from Mixtec Mexican Restaurant in Adams Morgan.

Looks good right? Blah.

I've been meaning to try MixTech for awhile now since they advertise themselves with actual pictures of the food looking all delicious. And I won't take that away from them, the food did look delicious. The taste? Not so much. In fact, not at ALL. But I won't start there, let's start at the beginning so you can really understand my disappointment.

We get to the restaurant where my friend Brandon and I literally walk into a room full of people eating. No person smiling, saying "welcome to MixTech". No stand with the sign that says "Please wait to be seated" or "Seat Yourself". No scarecrow substitute. Nothing. Just blatant disrespect. But I'll take it, I'll be nice. I walk over to the kitchen area and ask the first chick I see, "do we just sit down or...?" She tells me to sit and someone will be over. We do and we are left reading the menu for like 15, 20 mins. When my waitress comes to the table, it's the same chick I just spoke to in the kitchen and she goes "you ready?" (BEAT) You ready? YOU READY?! Have some courtesy and introduce yourself! "Hi, my name is Rrrosa and I'll be your waitress this evening!" No? Okay. We tell her we're not quite ready yet and she takes off. No "how are you?", no taking of drink orders, just no air of "my job is waiting tables and these people will probably tip me based on my performance tonight". Apparently Rosa didn't get the memo. Long story short, she finally brings us our food and the piss poor excuse for chips and salsa (looked like they shook all the flavor off of some Doritos chips and stole some day old pico de gallo from Busboys and Poets). I ordered a Yul Brynner burrito (the menu claims he like it) and Brandon had chicken tacos and they were both completely tasteless. Like TASTELESS.

It's Mexico, they have seasonings right? Somehow Taco bell is getting a hold of some, I'm not sure where Mixtec got left out.

At this point, I am the embodiment of "disappointment" At home, there's a restaurant near me in Dearborn Heights (Detroit) called Mexican Fiesta. Lucky for me, this place is one of the best Mexican restaurants in the city. They make their own chips and they're served hot out the grease with salsa. Did I mention they're hot? It's delicious. Seriously (in fact, post on them coming soon). But Mixtec? IT ALL TASTED LIKE MULTIPLE PILES OF NOTHING. In fact, without any intent of being malicious, I can comfortably say that Mixtec was the worst restaurant I've ever been to in my life. It blew me that I was loading my fork with delicious LOOKING food and tasting none of it. I should've eaten styrofoam, I'm sure it would have been cheaper. There's nothing worse than getting full off of nasty food. Don't ever, I mean EVER be fooled into going to MixTec in Adams's Morgan. There's nothing worse than EXPECTING highly of something and it being lower than your previously expected low! Not even in the ball park of what you expected. AND the service was bad. It was ALL AROUND BAD! That was like buying tickets to see Kanye West and you get there and Webbie's on stage. Singing some old song that was hot for a minute like 2 YEARS ago. You'd be pissed, right? In all, don't allow yourself to be fooled by the smiling white people in the window, it tastes like shit. Probably worst.

North Sea Asian Fusion Restaurant

Lucky for you, I finally ate at North Sea in Adams Morgan and remembered to take a picture of my plate before I smashed it down my sushi hole. No pun intended. As always, the sushi at North Sea was delicious! I always make sure I at least get a spicy crunchy shrimp roll because, as I mentioned in the Sushi Go Round post, theirs is the best. It's got cooked shrimp, some ground up crunchy stuff and some other stuff (sorry, can't quite recall right now) with a tasty sauce that they make themselves. I can't quite describe the taste but it complements the spicy crunchy shrimp-ness well. So, for every reluctant Negro who doesn't eat sushi because "(with a frown) it's raw fish", the Spicy Crunchy Shrimp roll is for you. Also, if you don't like shrimp, they make it with tuna and salmon. Trust me, you should mess with it. It's an Asian fusion restaurant so they also have Thai and some american foods. My first time having Pad Thai was at North Sea and I can say that it was better than the trials that followed.

AND, on top of delicious sushi, they have the NERVE to have a Happy Hour! You read correctly, and it rides from Monday to Sunday (yeah, 7 days a week) from like 4.30 to 7. SOme of the sushi is half price and the ngiri is a dollar each. It's not a bad deal at all. BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE! Get this. North Sea sells wine, beer, cigars, delicious and they'll deliver ALL of it! Seriously. You can order a case of beer and some sushi and they'll bring it right to your doorstep.

So...if you're ever in Adams Morgan and ou want some GREAT SUSHI, stop in to North sea. You won't regret it :o)

Sushi Go Round- DC's Chinatown/Gallery Place

Please excuse the huge time gap in the blogs I've posted...I've been busy! Last semester was the first of my last school year at Howard and I took all the classes (and internship) that I needed to graduate so I could could chill this semester. And I didn't have a job thus no $ to go out. BUT this is a new year, a new semester and all that has changed!

The other day I went to Sushi Go Round in Chinatown for sushi, of course. USUALLY I go to this amazing place in Adam's Morgan called North Sea Restaurant that has the most delicious sushi ever AND happy hour everyday where sushi is half price but's that's another post. This place is in the same building complex as the movie theater, right next to the Haagen-Dazs store. When I walked in, I was delighted to see a "chef's special" menu with specials. I'm not sure if it was a lunch time special or not but the prices were just to my liking. There were several different specials on the menu, I ordered the "Roll" special. For $8.99 I got three different rolls with miso soup. That was my first time having miso soup and I must say, shit was tasty. I thought it was a great deal for what I got.

They did a roll that I usually get from North Sea called Spicy Crunchy Shrimp. I was both sad

and pleased with their version. First, I was disappointed because North Sea's comes with a delicious

sauce I believe they make on their own. Of course, Sushi Go Round's version did not come with that. BUT

after a few bites, I recognized a familiar flavor. It was from Flaming Hot Cheetos. Don't sit there and

act like you didn't have whole lunches in elementary school that consisted of a bag of Flaming Hots and

a drink. Anywho, the taste wasn't like they crumbled the actual chips in the sushi, it was that familiar

tang from the chip. Like the flaming hot minus the spicy. Just the tang and crunch. I think it added a

nice touch but still doesn't quite amount up to North Sea's.

They also had a nifty sushi bar contraption where a bunch of exotic sushi was rotating around and you could choose the sushi you wanted to try off the conveyer belt thingy. It was cool to see and interesting. Next time I go, I'll be adventurous and try some myself.