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Le
Bon Fritaille Restaurant Haitien
190-29
Jamaica Ave., Hollis
718-264-9222
Cuisine:
Haitian
Hours:
6 a.m. to 11 p.m., every day
There’s
a small Haitian restaurant in Hollis where French is spoken before
English, and there’s nothing on the menu with the word “freedom” in
it anywhere.
Opened
in January 2003, the restaurant hasn’t gotten any flak for having a
predominantly French menu, the owner’s sister Audette Edward said in a
French accent recently.
“I’m
from Haiti, honey,” Edward said.
Unlike the Capitol Building, where lawmakers have replaced the word
“French” in foods like fries and toast with the word “Freedom,”
Edward noted that people here understand that Haitians have no ties to
France other than past colonization.
But
enough politics.
Le Bon Fritaille Restaurant Hatien, on Jamaica Avenue at 190th
Street, is a small corner space with just a few items on the menu but a
very wide range of flavors and aromas coming from each item.
In
short, it’s a cut above most Caribbean restaurants, which seem to prefer
to lay on textures and flavors in a very heavy way.
At
Le Bon Fritaille, the food is light and subtle.
A few special techniques and ingredients make the magic happen.
The
Edward family — mother Celine supplies many of the recipes — doesn’t
use oil in cooking, and doesn’t use heavy spices at all. The main spices
used are garlic, onion, thyme and basil.
The
result is a very interesting palette of flavors that seems a lot more
upscale than the casual corner restaurant, which has a lot of domestic
elements to its decoration, may suggest.
It’s
also a healthy result. Edward said that her restaurant feels responsible
for the health of its customers, and won’t serve anything that’s too
unhealthy.
“When
you cook, you have to help people,” Edward said. “Many people have too
high cholesterol. There’s too much sickness in the area.”
Edwards
considers healthy food to be good for business, too.
“They
want to eat — they don’t care,” Edwards said of her customers.
“But you have to protect them. You don’t want them to get sick
and not come back.”
The
menu reflects the Edwards philosophy. Vegetable, fish and chicken items
dominate the menu, with only a few beef or goat items.
The
most interesting item on the menu?
The “bega,” which Edward translated as “cow [penis]” (she
used a four-letter variation, though). It costs $8.
The
most popular item? The lambi, known in English as conch. Also popular is
another seafood item, the poisson, also known as fish. Both dishes are the
restaurant’s most expensive, at $12.
Other
items on the menu include cabrit en sauce, made with goat; legumes, made
with vegetables; griot, a mixed vegetable dish; poulet dur en sauce, made
with game chicken and ragout, or cow foot.
The
dishes, which cost about $7 or $8 with generous helpings of rice,
plantains and salad, can stuff one person well or fill two not-too-hungry
people adequately.
There’s
also a small soup menu, with three choices. The most popular is the
bouillon tete cabrit, made with spinach and cow foot. The soups cost $2.50
or $5 depending on size.
Le
Bon Fritaille is only a few months old, but there are already plans for
expansion. The Edwards want to start delivery service soon (a car is being
arranged for that right now), and they’re looking for live music acts to
play in the rustic, hand-painted dining room on Thursday, Friday and
Saturday nights.
—
Shams Tarek
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