New Orleans Jazz Fest food shares many connections to Haiti

I was sitting in the audience at the Zatarain's Food Heritage Stage at the New Orleans Jazz Fest, waiting for culinary historian, author and professor Jessica Harris to start her talk on the culinary connections between Haitian and New Orleans (More on Haitian Flavors at Fest). The doctor herself had just entered the room, then she was beside me.

Would I be on the stage with her so it would be more of a conversation than a monologue? Uh, OK. I can take notes and ask questions: I do that all the time, and I have seen Harris speak often enough that I knew I wouldn't have to do much talking.

And I knew I would learn a lot hearing her speak.

The shared links between Africa, Haiti and New Orleans (and other Caribbean countries) include:

 

MATTHEW HINTON / THE TIMES-PICAYUNE Mocha Mousse from the Coffee Cottage in River Ridge is seen at Food Area I at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival or Jazz Fest 2011 on Saturday, April 30, 2011 in New Orleans at the Fair Grounds.Fabulous food at Jazz Fest 2011 gallery (18 photos)

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*Composed rice dishes, such as jambalaya

*Fritters, cakes fried in oil, such as our beloved beignets (although that has a French influence, too) and calas

*Okra used as a thickener

*Abundant use of peppery hot sauces

*Use of leafy greens and consumption of the cooking liquid (AKA pot likker)

*Use of nuts and seeds as thickeners

*Smoked ingredients used as flavorings.

Harris said on Friday she talked to the iconic chef Leah Chase (whom we both agreed we worshipped) about the Haitian connections. Chase's Holy Thursday gumbo z'herbes, made with an odd number of greens, is the equivalent of the Caribbean's callalou, a stew of leafy greens.

"In each island there can be a different leafy green, and there is always one hot chile or another, and it's always served over rice," Harris said.

As for pralines, which Harris said are made anywhere sugar cane is grown, she said Mrs. Chase remembers the pralines of her childhood didn't have nuts. They were made with shaved coconut and colored pink or white.

"In the Caribbean, that's whats on the vendor's trays," Harris said.

As I sat there I kept thinking of all the different foods on the Jazz Fest grounds that are examples of what Harris was speaking about. I could find examples of them all, except maybe nuts used as a thickner.

We also discussed street vending and street foods.

"Mr. Okra's truck looks just like the ones in Haiti," Harris said.

New Orleans Jazz Fest feasting: the experts weigh inEach year an intrepid group of Times-Picayune Lagniappe staffers and friends set out to sample each and every food offering at the New Orleans Jazz Fest. Arts & Entertainment editor Ann Maloney explains the method to this culinary madness in this video.Watch video