HUNGARY: THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE

The first time I remember learning about Hungary was from my dad. No, it wasn’t a geography or social studies lesson where we sat around a globe like a Norman Rockwell painting. No, it came in the form of the timeless “dad joke.” See, the key proponent of dad jokes is the pun, as in Me: Dad, where’s Greece? Dad: Under my car. Or this classic one: Me: Dad, I’m hungry. Dad: Hi, Hungary. Now, can you say that in Hungarian? And then my education just got better from there. 

It’s widely believed that the name Hungary is stemmed from the Turkic words on-ogur, which means “ten arrows.” Before Hungary was united, several nomadic tribes roamed these lands. The word Hunni, which refers to the Huns (yes, as in Attila the Hun), is based on a Latin spelling.  However, the name the Hungarians give to their own county is Magyarország, or “land of the Magyars.” According to important Hungarian historical accounts, Magyar was the forefather of the Hungarians. Interestingly enough, Magyar’s brother Hunor was thought to be an important ancestor of the Huns.  

Lake Balaton

 

Hungary lies in Eastern and Central Europe. A landlocked country, it is surrounded by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east, Serbia to the south, Croatia and Slovenia to the southwest, and Austria to the northwest.  The famous Danube (as in “Blue Danube Waltz” by Austrian composer Johann Strauss II whose paternal great-grandfather was a Hungarian Jew) runs through the country and directly through the capital city of Budapest.  The lesser famous Tisza River is also very important to Hungarian geography.  Lake Balaton is the largest lake in Central Europe, which lies in the western region of the country. Nearby Lake Hévíz is the largest thermal lake in the world. Because of this, Lake Hévíz is thought to have medicinal properties beneficial to patients with rheumatoid and other joint/muscle ailments. 

1956 Uprising in Budapest

As I mentioned earlier, this land was originally inhabited by several roaming tribes of people who later united themselves, and Hungary was born in 895. It soon began to integrate itself into Western Christian Europe. Hungary changed to a feudal state and adopted Latin as its official language (which remained the official language until as late as 1844). Hungary has a long and moderately complicated history of being invaded and counter-invaded by a whole slew of people wanting to take over their land. For nearly 150 years, the Hungarians engaged in battles with the Ottoman Empire during the 1500s and 1600s.  These wars took a rather dismal toll on the country, completely changing its make-up. During the mid-1800s, the Hungarians battled it out with the Habsburg Empire, resulting in a couple of years of instability due to a revolution. During the latter part of the 1800s through the end of WWI, Hungary was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It was not small by any means: it was the second largest in area (behind Russia) and third in population (behind Russia and Germany). Austro-Hungarian soldiers fought alongside German soldiers in WWI and again during WWII.  After WWII, the Soviets controlled Hungary in hopes of making it another communist state, an extended hand of Russia. The Rákosi government in Hungary pretty much formed itself as a clone to Stalin regime.  Hungary joined the Warsaw Pact in 1955, which was basically a peace treaty among all the communist countries in Europe, and by the next year, massive protests led to huge riots in Budapest known as the 1956 Revolution. (There’s a lesser-known musical written by two members of ABBA called Chess, and part of the lyrics briefly refers to this uprising.) After the fall of communism in 1989 and the breakup of most of the Eastern Bloc, Hungary did exert itself upon the open markets and have its first multi-party elections. There has certainly been some turmoil and periods of instability, but they are working toward change; Hungary is still trying to find more stable footing economically and politically. 

Budapest is the capital and largest city in Hungary. In fact, it’s one of the larger cities in the European Union. Originally a Celtic settlement that became a Roman capital, the Mongols then came and tore it all to pieces. After it was rebuilt, it became an important art and cultural center in Europe.  No matter who was controlling the country at the time, Budapest remained an important global city.  The city as we know it was actually three separate cities at one time: Buda and Óbuda on the western bank of the Danube River and Pest on the eastern bank. When these cities were unified, it became Budapest. Not only is Budapest a major center for Hungarian government, it is also a center for higher education, the financial and banking sector, tourism, performing arts, museums, fashion, media, and cuisine. 

Peppers and paprika is very important to Hungarian cuisine.

Although Hungary’s economy was pretty shaky after the economic recession of 2008, it seems to have reached more stability today.  It has been a member of the World Trade Organization and the European Union for many years now, which helps economically to a degree.  The main industries that drive Hungary’s economy are chemicals and pharmaceuticals, processed foods, mining, metallurgy, textiles, and construction materials. Their agricultural products tend to be a variety of grains and seeds, tuber vegetables, meat, and dairy products. 

Christianity has played a major role in Hungary’s history. However, the denominations have changed throughout the years to include Roman Catholicism, Lutheranism, Calvinism, and even Orthodox Christianity (which is mostly practiced by some of the smaller ethnic groups). At one time, there were a significant number of Hungarian Jews, but many escaped during WWII.  There are pockets of other religions practiced throughout the country, such as Jehoveh’s Witnesses and Muslims.  Although the country itself declares no official religion, less than half of the people believe in an existence of God, and about 19% consider themselves atheist or agnostic. 

Szia = Hi

Ninety-nine percent of the people here speak Hungarian as a first language with a very small percentage speaking it as a second language.  It’s a unique language belonging to the Uralic language family. It’s unrelated to any language family around it but is distantly related to Finnish and Estonian. Hungary does also recognize several minority languages including Croatian, German, Romanian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, and Ukrainian.  English and German tend to be the most popular foreign languages studied in Hungary.  

Hungary is widely known for its contributions to the science, mathematics, and technology fields. Here’s a short list of influential Hungarians in these fields: Wolfgang von Kempelen (speaking machine); János Irinyi (noiseless match); Ányos Jedlik (electric motor); Donát Bánki and János Csonka (carburetor); Tivadar Puskás (telephone exchange); Károly Ereky (coined the word biotechnology); Albert Szent-Györgyi (discovered Vitamin C, Nobel Prize winner in Physiology or Medicine 1937); Kálmán Tihanyi (co-invented the cathode ray tube and completely electric TV, later invented the thermographic camera and plasma TV); Loránd Eötvös (discovered surface tension); Leó Szilárd (hypothesized nuclear chain reaction which led the way to the atomic bomb, later came up with the nuclear reactor and the electron microscope); Dennis Gabor (holography, Nobel Prize winner in Physics 1971); László Biró (ballpoint pen); and Ernö Rubik (Rubik’s Cube) among many others.

And all I can say is that I’ve already started cooking for Hungary, because there are just too many great recipes to pass up.

Up next: art and literature

HONDURAS: THE FOOD

It’s been a great couple of weeks here. I got on board with a part time ads rating job, and we got our tax return check: we had our one week of living the lifestyle of the nouveau riche, despite the fact that we were hit with super cold wind chills again – but that didn’t stop us from being out and about. We mostly paid up bills, bought a few things for ourselves and the house, and my husband and I went on a rampage of eating out at new restaurants, including Red Lion Grog House (British food) and Sushi Club (all-you-can-eat sushi – 68 pieces of sushi later, we ate until we hated ourselves. But we’ll definitely be back to hate ourselves again.) And today, it’s Honduran food. 

What I thought was sure-fire food poison turned out pretty good.

 I started with a recipe for Ceiba Conch Ceviche. We’re all still a little scarred after my first tryst with conch back when I attempted to make conch fritters when I was cooking from Antigua and Barbuda.  So, I went for the alternate suggestion of using a mild fish (I used pollack, although I’m pretty sure pollack is only in northern Atlantic waters, and pollack is probably a little stronger flavored than “mild.”). I’ve always been a little leery at making true ceviches, which basically “cooks” the raw fish or seafood using the acidity of the limes. From a Western point-of-view, this seems to give the potential for food poisoning, but if it is done correctly, it should be safe. Otherwise, millions of people in the Caribbean and Latin America would have died from ceviche poisoning and no one in their right mind would ever share the recipe. So, basing my faith in statistics, common sense, and logic, I started in on this. I flaked my fish and squeezed the juice from two limes on top, stirring it to coat. Then I chopped up my vegetables very small (larger than minced, but smaller than diced): a red and green bell pepper, celery, and onion. I mixed in some salt and pepper (accidently forgetting to put in the garlic), and drizzled it all with a bit of olive oil and topped with fresh cilantro. It called for a serrano pepper, and I was going to add in a little bit of chipotle peppers that I had on hand, but I forgot that too. Then I stirred in my fish with lime juice and let it chill for about four hours in the refrigerator. But after the four hours, it magically wasn’t raw anymore. And it actually tasted pretty good. I actually liked it. My daughter liked it too, but my son thought the cat might prefer it (I stopped him before he got that far). 

I have no words for this. This recipe took banana bread to a whole new level.

 Next, I got started on the Honduran Banana Bread. This sounded amazing from the moment I read the recipe. I started this by beating my margarine with cream cheese, then adding in a cup of sugar and beating in an egg. Then in a different bowl, I combined the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt and set this aside.  In a third bowl, I mixed my bananas, milk, vanilla extract, and rum (I went with a mango-infused rum by Bacardi since I can’t drink dark rum. Brown alcohols make me so sick. Apparently so does mango-infused rum if it’s following a half-bottle of pinot grigio).  I left out the pecans, but added in the flaked coconut. After mixing in a little bit from all three mixtures, stirring constantly until it was all consistent, I poured the batter into a greased loaf pan and threw it into the oven for an hour.  The interesting part is that this banana bread has a glaze that is drizzled on top. For this part, I added in a little brown sugar, margarine, lime juice, and rum in a saucepan and brought it all to a simmer, stirring constantly.  Once I removed it from the heat, I stirred in more coconut (and pecans if you’re using them, but I’m not for this recipe) and spooned the mixture over the bread once it’s taken out of the oven. This was the best part of the meal. Hands down. I think it was actually better that I used the mango-infused rum instead of the dark or spiced rum the recipe suggested. The mango with the coconut accented the tropical flavors in this bread. I actually think it may have been better with the pecans in it to counter some of the sweetness of the bread. But even at that, it was still delightful. 

I can't wait to have this for lunch tomorrow. We eat pretty well over here.

 Finally, for the main entrée. I chose a national dish called Baleadas.  This easy recipe can be adapted for lunch or breakfast or snacks and can be generally made to serve what ingredients you have on hand.  I didn’t make my own tortillas, but I’m sure it would’ve been better if I had. It’s not hard; I just had a ton of pre-made flour tortillas already. To make these, I took a tortilla and filled half of it with warmed refried beans, topped with queso cotija (I grated it myself) and a little Mexican sour cream called crema agria. That’s the basic version, and people can choose from a variety of different toppings to add. I went with some chorizo, minced spiced avocado that I made a few days ago, and curtido (I bought a Salvadoran version from the Mexican grocery store. This version is pickled shredded cabbage, carrots, red bell peppers, and onion. It’s so good – far better than when I tried to make my own when I cooked for El Salvador – we put curtido on top of hamburgers we made last night.).  One you have the toppings on half of the tortilla, fold it over and it’s ready to eat. Many versions include adding scrambled eggs.  I liked this with the chorizo and curtido. I thought it was fabulous. Although I didn’t care so much for the type of refried beans I bought, but I couldn’t remember the brand I bought last time. My daughter was leery about the crema agria (“Mom, is this sour cream? Because you know I hate sour cream.” “No, honey. It’s a type of Mexican cheese called crema agria. It just LOOKS like American sour cream, but it’s Mexican.” “Oh, ok.”), but she liked it more or less. My son, on the other hand, is six years old and hates everything. 

What a wonderful meal! It was delightfully tasty!

 This was an easy day of cooking. Some of the meals I pick make me feel like I’m on my feet all day. But today gave me plenty of opportunities to sit down and rest for an hour or so while cooking. Although Honduras is one of the poorest countries in Latin America, their food is wholesome, fresh, with a complexity of flavors. It always confirms my theory that most of the time, a country’s “national” dish often comes from the poor people’s cuisine. It has to contain ingredients that are readily available, and it also has to be easy and cheap to grow, to buy, and/or to store. These are the type of recipes that makes people reminiscent of home and brings families together. I’m certain that I’ll pull these recipes back out again for holidays and get-togethers. Because that’s what these recipes are for.

Up next: Hungary

HONDURAS: MUSIC AND DANCE

Surprisingly, Honduras has a very diverse music scene and has always been diverse. It incorporates the musical styles of many of the countries and regions around Latin America and the Caribbean: reggae, salsa, reggaeton, merengue, cumbia, bachata, and others. Punta is one of the most popular styles in Honduras.  Guitars, marimbas, and a variety of percussion instruments are also common in Honduran folk music. 

 

The Garifuna people were African slaves who the British brought to the Caribbean countries and traded them around, only to be freed and brought to Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, and other areas where they intermarried with the native people. They pretty much stayed to themselves; subsequently, their music was not as influenced by outside forces as much as others. They are known for their dominant musical styles of chumba and hunguhungu, which also has a circle dance to accompany its three-beat rhythm.  The Garifuna, like other Hondurans, sing Punta music as well. Punta has a dance that accompanies the music, and almost every community has an area where people can get together to sing and dance.  

 

I found a lot of Honduran bands/groups available on Spotify. In fact, I liked the metal rock band Diablos Negros so much that I bought their album right away. The album Revolución is phenomenal. The song “Ahogame en Dolor” is the best one on the album. Seriously, I love this song. I’ve played this so many times, and I still haven’t got tired of it. Actually, my husband and I were talking about how we celebrated out 10^th wedding anniversary a few months ago, but neither of us exchanged gifts at the time. The traditional gift for the 10^th anniversary is tin/aluminum.  So, I burned a copy of this album and gave it to him, and said, “Hey, it’s Honduran metal music. Close enough.” He’s been blasting this album in the garage, and I’ve been blasting it in my car. What we appreciate is that there are moments where they sound like Disturbed, and other moments where they sound like Rob Zombie, and sometimes I can hear a Linkin Park influence, a Live influence, and a White Snake influence. And if you like this band, another Honduran rock band you might like is Delirium. I listened to their album Abismo. It’s also a great album that shows some insight on part of the writers. 

I’m not quite sure what to think of the band Pez Luna. Definitely on the lighter side of Latin rock, especially compared to the previous two bands. Reminding me a little of Carlos Vives, this band uses the accordion, flute, piano, and a variety of guitars and percussion. At times, it almost sounds like lounge jazz mixed with indie rock. The band Khaoticos is a pretty basic rock band. They weren’t horrible, but they just didn’t really do much for me. They have a few good songs, though. 

The band El Sol Caracol is full of catchy songs, mixing reggae and other Caribbean flavors with rock. Sometimes I think there were still a lot of traditional influences in their music. El Pueblo also mixes reggae with jazz and indie rock into their music. I kind of like their music.  I’m a fan of both reggae and indie rock, so if that’s not your thing, then this might not be for you. 

 

Finally, Honduras has certainly made its own mark in reggaeton musicians. I am a fan of reggaeton, believe it or not. I found two that impressed me. The first one I came across is Bullaka Family. They use the autotune a little too much for my taste, but otherwise the songs are catchy. I think they tend to stay on the side of pop-reggaeton, although a couple of songs sounded like Don Omar. The other group I came across is Yerbaklan. I liked them a little better. They also are not afraid to mix other Latin and Caribbean genres with reggaeton. There are a few songs I listened to that sounded like they utilized some styles from dancehall or soca or even pop.

Up next: the food

HONDURAS: ART AND LITERATURE

Art in Honduras is so intertwined with its culture that it’s hard to distinguish it on its own. It’s often utilized in the home as well as with religious celebrations and festivals.  

 

The early Mayans and other indigenous peoples of the area had their own art. It consisted of primitive drawings depicting hunts and other life events, but it also includes a large number of sculptures that are amazingly still preserved today. It’s quite noticeable that there is a high quality of craftsmanship in these sculptures. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have survived so long, right? Pottery and handicrafts, such as woven mats, have also been found in pre-Columbian settlements and are still created to this day by current members of the dwindling number of indigenous communties. 

 

After the Spanish arrived, the brought along their own art to the area. Indigenous art was now combined with the most popular styles in Europe –Spanish, Gothic, Moorish– and these artistic themes were adapted to new world art and architecture. As Hondurans gained independence, themes of the struggles of poverty, everyday life, religion, and their natural environment were commonly depicted in their paintings and sculptures. Jungle animals, especially that of the jaguar, were often painted into pictures. 

One of Honduras’ most prominent painters is Miguel Ángel Ruiz Matute. As an expressionist painter, his paintings show an array of emotions, often using muted tones and painting an object or person in such a way to give the audience a double exposure of the emotion he’s trying to portray.

If you ever get the chance to visit Honduras during Easter week, you’ll probably get to see first-hand the Easter carpets. People take bits of colored pieces of sawdust and arrange them on the sidewalks along the path of the Good Friday procession and create intricate pictures. These pictures usually depict scenes of the Easter story or other Catholic-related themes.  I would imagine that these carpet designs take a lot of planning, talent, and patience to put together. But when everyone has completed their square, the street looks amazing. 

Honduran literature is predominantly written in Spanish. Early Honduran literature topics primarily covered religion and historical documents. But it really didn’t get its push until the late 19^th century and early 20^th century. 

Writers here ventured into many genres. Some of the most notable poets include Juan Ramón Molina (a national library and a bridge are named after him), Óscar Acosta (poet, diplomat, journalist), Roberto Sosa (award winner, has had several books translated into English, didn’t publish his first book until he was 30 years old), and Amanda Castro (award winner, has several works available). 

Froylán Turcios

 There has been many novelists emerge in the last century and a half: Froylán Turcios (politician, journalist, often considered one of the greatest intellectuals in Honduran history), Lucila Gamero de Medina (romantic novelist, one of the first women writers to be published in Honduras), Ramón Amaya Amador (known for his leftist politics, was instrumental in promoting social realism), and many others.

Honduran writers also represent other specific genres, such as historical writings, scientific writings, memoirs, political writings, and plays/drama.

Up next: music and dance

HONDURAS: THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE

When I was in college, I used to meet a lot of people from a lot of different countries. It helped that I was part of the Languages, Literatures and Linguistics department at Indiana State University. I met a few people from Honduras there as well as when I used to tutor in ESL in various places. And oh, what I wouldn’t give to be there right now, where it’s warm and fresh fruit is always in season, instead of here in Indiana, where we’re bracing for wind chills below zero and fruit is expensive now because it’s out of season. Those things make me sad.

The name Honduras means “depths,” which may be stemmed from many sources. Some historians believe it may have been based on a statement from Christopher Columbus, or it may have referred to the Bay of Trujillo. Before 1580, Honduras only referred to the eastern part of this area whereas Higueras (“fig trees”) referred to the western portions.

The country of Honduras is located in the middle of Central America, surrounded by Guatemala to the west, El Salvador to the southwest, and Nicaragua to the east. It has a very long coast on the Caribbean side (700 km/435 mi) and a very short coast on the Gulf of Fonseca (153 km/95 mi), which opens to the Pacific Ocean. Because of its tropical climate, Honduras has a wide variety of flora and fauna. They’re quite known for the number of native plants, including 630 varieties of orchid along with over 700 types of birds, and over 50 types of bats. Honduras’ rain forests and cloud forests keep ecotourists arriving year after year. The Mosquito Coast, named after the Miskito Indians who first lived there, spreads along the Caribbean coast and extends through most of the Nicaraguan coast. There are still many areas of the Mosquito Coast that are scarcely populated and contain untouched rainforests.

Before Columbus arrived in this region of the world, the Mayan civilization extended through what is now known as Honduras. On his fourth and final trip to this area, Columbus landed in the Bay Islands and near where the city of Trujillo currently lies. Hernán Cortés later came in from Mexico to conquer these lands as well; however, much of the Miskito Kingdom did not fall to the Spaniards at that time. The Spanish counted Honduras as a province of Guatemala, and eventually moved the capital from Trujillo to Comayagua to its current-day capital of Tegucigalpa. They set up silver mines, basically using the native peoples to work the mines in exchange for protection from other warring tribes along with other promises (this legal system was called encomienda). But as disease spread, the Spanish brought in slaves from Africa to pick up the “slack” from the dying native population they were more or less responsible for. Honduras did eventually gain its independence from Spain in 1821, but it was difficult for them to find their place. It was part of the First Mexican Empire, then it was part of the United Provinces of Central America before settling on becoming the Republic of Honduras.  There have been many skirmishes and rebellions throughout the early years in Honduras’ history. The fruit companies, and more specifically the sale of bananas, carved out a significant corner of Honduras’ economy, thus leading to the term Banana Republic (given by no less than the US author O. Henry). The downside was that although these were very large companies and had a lot of influence on several governments, they were tax exempt, and therefore didn’t contribute very much to the economies at all. In 1969, Honduras and El Salvador became engaged in border tensions that escalated during elimination matches ahead of the World Cup.  This became known as the Soccer War. The US has had a military presence in Honduras many times in the early part of the 20^th Century as well as on and off again during the 1970s and 1980s in an effort to keep peace in Central America among other reasons. Honduras has also been ravaged by hurricanes and flooding many times, causing millions of dollars in damage and taking years to rebuild its infrastructure.

The capital city is Tegucigalpa, or commonly referred to as Tegus by the locals. Lying in the interior of the country, yet not far from the Pacific side, this capital city has about 1.3 million people in its metro area. The origin of the name Tegucigalpa is disputed, although many historians and anthropologists believe it is derived from a Nahuatl word. The government of the newly founded country decided to alternate the capital city between Tegucigalpa and nearby Comayagüela, although eventually the capital included both cities, each city holding different functions of the government.

Honduras is one of the poorest countries in Central and South America with a high unemployment and underemployment rate and a high poverty rate. Although they do have a substantial mining industry, mostly in silver, gold, zinc, and lead, the country is still highly indebted to foreign aid. There seems to be a lot of debate over whether government-owned or private-owned utilities and subsidies are better and how much actually goes back into the economy. Honduras’ infrastructure is one area that varies widely on where it is. Urban areas generally seem to have better roads, cleaner water, and better functioning sanitation systems. The rural areas can be far less sophisticated in what is provided. In 2003 a new law was passed that essentially took the burden of handling water and sanitation off of the federal government and placed it in the hands of regional and local officials. Many towns banded together to improve their own conditions. I would be interested to see if conditions increased for the better.

While officially Honduras often considers itself a majority Catholic nation, studies have found that the number of Protestants of many denominations is gaining popularity. Many people often attend more than one church, which may be skewing the numbers. Honduras also has significant followings of Buddhism, Bahá’í, Rastafari, Islam, and Judaism.

The official language of Honduras is Spanish, although there are several other languages that carry a recognized regional language status: Garifuna, Miskito, Bay Islands Creole English (also referred to as Caracol), Samu, Pech, Jicaque, and Ch’orti’ (a Mayan language).

For a country that lies along the infamous Ring of Fire, and unlike other nearby countries, Honduras does not contain any active volcanoes. But it does have the oldest clock in the Americas, located in the city of Comayagua, which is still actively keeping time. Thought to have been built during the latter part of the 1300s, this clock still apparently does keep time after all of these years (even though parts of it have been replaced and refurbished over the years). The clock was built in Spain and received as a gift, but it’s disputed as to who exactly gave the clock as a gift. One of the craziest things I read was the “raining fish” phenomenon (called lluvia de peces) in the town of Yoro. There are a number of theories as to why or how this happens, especially given the fact that this town is 140 miles from the Atlantic coast. Whatever is causing this ichthyoidal gift wrapped in superstition, it’s been going on every year for more than a century. I’m excited to jump into researching Honduras. I’ve already downloaded an album by the Honduran metal/rock band Diablos Negros, so this is bound to be good.

Up next: art and literature

HAITI: THE FOOD

So, it’s been an interesting week. I finished the project I was working on, and now I’m waiting for another project to start. So in the meantime, there’s no money coming in. I did, however, manage to finally self-publish my first book. Not the first book I’ve written, but the first book I’ve published. It’s called O as in Circle – And Other Stupid Things Heard While Filing Claims, and it’s available right now through Lulu.com and iBooks. It’s currently under review by other e-book retailers (Kindle store, Nook store, and Kobo). Hopefully, it’ll be released soon. And I am finalizing my book proposal for a book on essay writing that I just finished. I’m determined to make this writing thing work. 

Seriously awesome.  Like, how can you go wrong with this?

And all of that brings me to cooking food from Haiti today. I started with marinating the meat for Griot. My marinade consisted of lime juice (and I threw in the limes themselves as well), some orange juice, seasoning salt, rosemary, oregano (in lieu of thyme), parsley, garlic powder, and a few jalapeños with their juice. Then I cut my pork into strips (I used pork butt steaks because they were on sale, and yes, I laugh every time I hear the words “pork butt” because apparently, my humor is that of a six-year-old boy at times), mixed it with the marinade, and put it all in the fridge before we headed out to finish up our taxes. After about four hours of sitting in the marinade, I put the meat into a saucepan and covered it with water and boiled it until most of the water evaporated (it took about 45-50 minutes or so). Then I let it cook some more before I took it out of the saucepan. In a skillet, I heated some oil and fried the pork until it was browned. I thought it was very good. I absolutely loved this. It was a little bit spicy, but not too much. Letting the meat boil for nearly an hour before lightly frying it gave it this wonderful texture: tender yet crispy on the outside.  My son didn’t eat much of it; he basically just laughed at “pork butt” the entire meal. But the rest of us ate it up.

I wish my abs looked like this bread. But I love chocolate and wine too much for this to happen.  

While the meat was marinating, I made Pain Haïtien. For this, I mixed my yeast packets with the warm water and let sit for a few minutes to proof. Then I added in agave nectar (I think it’s much sweeter and a little cheaper than honey; I found it at Aldi’s for around $2.50), vegetable oil, salt, nutmeg, and half of the flour. Once I stirred it until it was smooth, I slowly added in the rest of the flour until it was a thicker, elastic-y dough. I poured a little oil into the bottom of my bowl and rolled my dough in it before covering it with a towel and letting it sit for nearly an hour. When this was done, I punched down the dough and then pressed it into a greased loaf pan. I didn’t have a dish the size the recipe recommended (15” x 10”), so I was hoping a loaf pan was ok. Then I drug my knife over the dough, cutting roughly 2/3 of the way through the dough to create pull-apart squares. Then I let it sit for another half hour. Just before I placed it in the oven, I added a bit of espresso grounds into some milk and brushed the top of the bread with it.  After about 35 minutes in the oven, it was ready to take out and cool. This bread turned out beautiful. The outside was crisp but the inside was soft, and the hint of nutmeg was wonderful. I really couldn’t taste any hint of the coffee in the milk that I brushed the top with, but it was still very good.

So comforting. I was quite impressed with this.

And to accompany the Griot, I made a popular side dish called Riz Dion or Riz Djon-Djon. This dish is supposed to use black mushrooms, but it’s really hard to find here.  And I was on a super tight budget, so I was sort of forced to use white mushrooms. I removed the stems from the mushrooms and placed the stems in a bowl of water to soak for a half hour. I threw out the stems but kept the water after they finished soaking. I also put the caps in a bowl of hot water as well. In a pan, I melted the butter and fried the garlic in it. Then I added in the rice and stirred it around to coat the rice, adding in the salt, black pepper, and oregano (because my thyme went bad). After this, I took the liquid I reserved from soaking the mushrooms and poured it on top of the rice mixture along with the mushroom caps (I chopped them up a bit). It roughly took about 15-16 minutes for the rice to cook and completely soak up the liquid. My daughter absolutely loved this. I had to stop her from eating it all up and save some for my husband. I liked it too, but I think the next time I make this, I want to make it with oyster mushrooms. I think that would be totally awesome. 

This was a very good meal. Haiti, you surprised me. I loved it all. 

There were so many other recipes from Haiti that I came across that sounded amazing, and I wanted to try them all, but I just didn’t have time. I suppose if I stopped binge watching Dr. Who, or reading three books at the same time, I might’ve been able to make some of these other things. I copied down a recipe for Haitian Cake that the kids requested. That might get done later. (Along with that other cake from Guinea-Bissau that failed.) A friend of mine told me about a dish called pikliz, which is generally used as a garnish or side dish. It’s shredded cabbage, carrots, red bell peppers, peppers, and other things stored in vinegar for five days. I looked up the recipe a little too late to make it for this blog. Judging from the photos, it looks almost like a Haitian version of Korean kimchi.

My friend has been living in Haiti for nearly a year now and is a part of an organization called myLIFEspeaks. They are a non-profit organization and do a variety of projects in Haiti including education and special education as well as providing medical resources and food for many families. If you’d like to donate to their cause to help these Haitian kids and their families, their website has a page listing items they need and a page where you can donate money so they can purchase these items themselves. As you get your tax refund check back, you might want to think about giving some to a good cause. Every little bit counts. 

Up next: Honduras  

HAITI: MUSIC AND DANCE

Haiti’s music is as diverse as its culture.  It draws inspiration and utilizes traditions from Taíno, African, French, and Caribbean musical styles.

Méringue is related to the merengue styles that originated in the Dominican Republic; however, méringue doesn’t use the accordion, but rather sticks with just the guitar.  Its popularity has waned over the years, giving way to kompa (or compas). Musician Nemours Jean-Baptiste brought kompa to the forefront of popular music during the 1950s.

Rara is a type of religious-based music traditionally performed during Lent (from Ash Wednesday until Easter). It ties Christian themes with Vodou themes. Often, these rara bands perform during Rara processionals, seemingly many times at night.

During the 1960s and 1970s, another variation of méringue formed called mini-jazz.  Many of these bands were usually made of two guitars, a bass, a brass section, a saxophone, drum, conga, cowbell, and sometimes a keyboard or accordion.  Another style that developed out of méringue is zouk and zouk-love, and it’s related to another style called cadence. These styles spread out and created variations throughout the Caribbean.

Rock bands emerged during the 1960s, but it was very much mixed with kompa music. Haitian rock music did incorporate a lot of Caribbean sounds (like reggae and others) during the 1990s. During the late 1970s and early 1980s, a youth movement developed out of frustration with the Duvalier dictatorship. Much of this movement involved a move back to rural life and shunning corporate capitalistic life; people donned the Bob Marley-esque hippie look with peasant clothes and dreadlocks. And out of this environment came a style of music that fused rock, reggae, and funk called mizik rasin, or roots music.

Dance is very much an integral part of Haitian life and Haitian music. Kompa dancing obviously accompanies kompa music. Fast movements accent the upbeat tempos. Méringue dancing is slightly slower but still uses the whole body in its movements.  Dancing is often performed during various religious ceremonies and celebrations. These religious dances also are heavily based on Vodou themes and symbolism, which are often based on dance traditions brought over from West Africa. Dance is an important part of Haitian culture, and they are very proud of it.

Haitian hip-hop is also a pretty popular genre starting in the 1990s.  A lot of Haitian hip-hop incorporates kompa rhythms and melodies as the basis of the music, and much of the lyrics reflect the socio-political struggles that are often reflected in hip-hop music around the world.  It also can pull from other genres such as jazz, blues, reggae, or dancehall. 

One of the most famous musicians from Haiti is rapper Wyclef Jean. I’ve been a fan of his for a long time. He first gained fame from his work with the group The Fugees along with Lauryn Hill and Pras. I have the album The Score, which was released in 1996. I’d say the best songs on the album are “Ready or Not,” “Killing me Softly,” “No Woman, No Cry,” and “Fu-Gee-La.” I also listened to the album Playlist: The Very Best of Wyclef Jean. There were a lot of songs on here that I like. I like his style; it often incorporates funk and reggae and other US-Caribbean-Latin styles with hip-hop. Many songs often utilize skits and sentiments on the struggles of urban life with a socio-political commentary. 

Another hip-hop artist I found is Fam-Squad, who has very much of a typical US sound. Several songs almost have a jazz or R&B sound underneath it, but other songs almost have a dance or electronica sound to it. I also ran across an artist named Muzion who tends to use a lot of sampling from classical music styles to jazz and funk. I liked the two songs found. Barikad Crew has a pretty good album called R.E.D. Many of the songs sound like reggaeton, but without the characteristic reggaeton rhythms. Most songs are accompanied by accented strings motifs with lyrics sung in Kreyòl.

Another musician I came across is Boukman Eksperyans.  This music falls in the category of mizik rasin. I listened to the album La Révolte Des Zombies. It seems like the music was influenced by hip-hop, a style called twoubadou, reggae, and other styles. Eddy François is another musician in this style, but his music reminds me of a little more smooth jazz.

Up next: the food