I stumbled across a website describing a particularity of some Haitians' diet that will probably never make it to a grocery store near you. I'm not talking about some extra spicy food, or weird fruit, or a dish made from squirrel or something. In fact, it's not really food at all; it's mud cakes, eaten by many poor Haitians to fill otherwise empty bellies. One of the long-term volunteers saw what I was reading about and asked if I'd like to try one. Sure enough, even in Petionville, one of the richest area of Haiti, you can buy mud cakes at a local market for the low low price of 5 gourdes (~2 cents US).
Broken pieces of Haitian mud cakes
The mud cakes are made of clay, vegetable oil and salt, and sun-baked. Apparently some of the older kids at the orphanage can remember eating them when they were younger. I tried one (well, a piece of one anyway); it's silty, sucks the moisture out of your mouth, and pretty much just tastes like clay.
Impressions of mud cake: not so great
I don't think it's so much the fact that some people eat them that bothers me, but that there is a high enough demand for them that there's basically a whole mud cakes industry here. It's almost incomprehensible. How desperate would you have to be to regularly feed your kids dirt for dinner?
What kind of pussy ARE you. You showed us a photo of big ole thick pieces of that crap, but YOU are munching on a little thin piece.
ReplyDeleteI say you give it a REAL try, and post THAT photo.
It seems that I've read about this...dirt eating...happening somewhere in India, as well. Seems to me it might have been reddish...but, I'm old. You know how we can be with our memories, sometimes.
By the way, I'm sitting way up here on the left side of the country watching you. Wave at me every now and then, will you?
Are you sure they're not just yanking your chain? They tell you it's food but actually it's just broken pottery they sell to foreigners?
ReplyDeleteAlso, did you try it with ketchup? Or cheez whiz? Or on a poutine perhaps?
I MISS YOU
at first I thought mud cake was going to be some amazing chocolatey thing - but I guess Im wrong :S Is it really better to eat dirt than nothing? Wouldnt it block you up and potentially hurt you? How much calories can dirt have !
ReplyDeleteI think you people misunderstand something. They're not really eating this because they need to feed their belly, but it's a weird habit, people who is pregnant, and young children usually eat this. once yu start yu can't stop because yu get use to it.it is like a drug, really but not because they need food. all kind of people eat it it hurt if yu eat it too much, yu can even have surgery, so people cannot eat this for food . please people stop talking krap try to understand.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if it would be better wet instead of dread, if it sucks up moisture like that..
ReplyDelete