Anthropologist Zora Neale Hurston did field work in Haiti in 1937. Hurston recalls eating “jean-jean and rice” which she describes as, “Haiti's most delicious native dish.” According to her, “Jean-jean is a little wild mushroom that grows” in Haiti. Her host, one Jules Faine, says Hurston prepares jean-jean and rice better than anyone else in Haiti. During a book talk, I shared that as in West Africa, rice remained at the center Caribbean foodways. During the book signing a Haitian student said to me, “You know we Haitians make the best rice.” When it comes to shared foods like cooking rice and fish, I find ethnocentric (thinking we are the best) cooking claims hilarious!
