Reportage sur un petit Resto Ayisyen à Montréal.

Casse-croûte à la Haiti

Smiling ange serves up tasty Caribbean fare in a cozy setting. And if you're not familiar with the cuisine, it's always sample time.

SARAH MUSGRAVE
Freelance
Saturday, March 15, 2008

ANGE & RICKY

Good bet
$
Address: 195 Jarry St. E.
(at de Gaspé St.)
Phone: 514-385-6094
Hours: Mon. to Wed. 9:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.,
Thurs. and Fri. to 9:30 p.m.; Sun. 11:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Closed Sat.

Licensed: No
Credit cards: Cash only
Wheelchair access: Two narrow steps
Vegetarian friendly: No
Price range: All dishes $4.49 to $17


Ange & Ricky is a typical "casse-croûte du coin," except that it happens to dole out Haitian staples like cabrit and chayote instead of diner classics like burgers and fries.

It's also friendlier than most of the snack bars in the city.
In fact, you may feel like you're back in a schoollunchroom, as your meal is ladled out from big metal trays by the smiling Ange herself, while her kids and grandkids mill about with snacks of their own.

If your palate is more attuned to poutine than Caribbean fare, she'll let you have a taste to see if you like what's cooking before you commit.

As we stood in front of the counter, we were offered various taste tests. "Vous connaissez?" Ange asked each time, handing over mouthfuls of homemade goods in little paper cups, like the kind used for doling out medication in convalescent homes.

A funny quirk, and one well appreciated.
If there's one texture that reigns in casual Haitian cuisine,it's chewiness: all aspects of chewy meats, from jerky-like dried slivers to dense, moist chunks.

At the Haitian restos I've experienced so far,there's been one way to do things, and that's well done.
While this can be off-putting to the eye,it does have the effect of concentrating flavours.
With a choice of chicken, turkey, goat (cabrit) and beef (tassot), the meat noticeably not on offer was pork, noteworthy because nibbly chunks called griot are as common at Haitian restaurants as chicken nuggets in American diners.

Turkey was clearly the stand-in, cut into similar firm morsels with that same gnaw-worthy consistency. Dark and stringy, topped with rounds of onion and sprinkled with dry spices,
the goat looked drier than it was; though they'd retreated beneath the surface, I detected juices deep within.

Plantain got similar treatment, flattened into rounds and fried until arid and chip-like.

In the riz collé - long-grained rice and kidney beans - water was also a distant memory.

But a small container of what looked like tomato soup was the ticket to counteracting all that deliberate double-cooking; just pour it over pretty much everything.
Another way to round out a platter is with a vegetable dish (that's vegetable and not vegetarian, given the pieces of meat hiding in it).

I was taken with both of Ange's preparations,which reinforced the Creole connection.

The first, a dish called lalo, with spinach-like greens,okra, thyme and garlic, had a tangy gumbo thing going on; with a sprinkle of dried shrimp, it would have even more closely resembled a West African stew.

The second, a lively chayote blend, reminded me of New Orleans, where they call this pulpy veg mirliton.

What wasn't available was a one-pot wonder called vie-a-gra, a soup with everything in it.

"It's not an entrée, it's an exit. You eat that, then you're so full you get up and leave," Ange's son,Ricky, joked.

We were having trouble getting out of our seats as it was.
Fortunately, more pill dispensers appeared,this time proffering thimblefuls of incredible house lemonade infused with vanilla beans - just the right dose of the right medicine.


Sarah Musgrave is the author of 2007's Montreal Resto à Go-Go:
200 Cheap and Fun Places to Eat and Drink in Montreal.
© The Gazette (Montreal) 2008

Marc,

Connais-tu?

Il faut dire qu'il y a cuisine haitienne et chien janbé a l'haitienne. La plupart des restos haitiens que je connaisse dans la diaspora ne sont qu'une version américanisée des chiens janbés.
Il n'ont rien a voir avec la haute cuisine haitienne telle qu'enseingnée dans les écoles culinaires haitiennes comme dans le temps l'école Guy Jean Louis, Mme Desvarieux etc...ou des grands restaurants comme Chez Gerard..etc...

Pourquoi ce resto aurait éliminé le GRIYO de porc, plat haitien par excellence?
Ce serait comme un resto Italien sans pasta ou un Grec sans Souvlaki.

Se patou wi,manje ayisyen ap fè firè.Men yon ti repòtaj sou yon restoran ayisyen lan Roanoke ,Va.

http://www.roanoke.com/columnists/nair/wb/127156

Epitou Sasaye ,ou mèt si yo pa sèvi Griyo nan restoran ayisyen Monreyal lan ,paske mèt restoran yo se advantis.

Mwen te pè se te yon zafè relijyion.
Mwen te kwè yo te mizilman oubyen jwif.
Advantis an Ayiti pa manje griyo?

Epi, Colo, lan repotaj saa lanpwen kestyon malpwòpte.
Si jounalis blan saa ta wè yon ti salte, li pa tap bliye pale sou jan Ayisyen malpwòp.

Sasaye mande si advantis pa manje griyo.

Mwen pa kwè yo manje vyann kochon non,menm jan ak mizilman ak jwif.
se ansyen testaman yo plis swiv,tankou se Saba yo obsève.

Siman gen advantis sou sit sa a ,ya bay di plis!