Wednesday is lalo day at Did You Eat Yet?, a Haitian restaurant-inside-a-convenience-store on Albany Street in the South End. The spinach-like jute leaves steam down slowly into a bed of dark, tender greens.
“Everyone comes for the lalo,” says owner Mirbentz Jean Francois, or “Bentz” for short. “It’s a delicacy in Haiti. It’s very rare to find. We eat it on Sundays in Haiti. It has a flavor of its own that’s completely different from anything you ever tasted.”
Did You Eat Yet?, opened in August, is the latest chapter in a story inspired by Jean Francois’s love of Haitian food, and his desire to share it with the world. Enter what looks like any other convenience store — aside from the sign hanging overhead, picturing a grinning man in chef’s whites holding a steaming covered dish, below the words “Nice and Easy, Fresh and Fast.” Walk past the displays of sunglasses, ramen noodles, and snacks. And find the counter in the back, where steam trays are filled with Haitian mac and cheese; diri ak djon djon, black mushroom rice; griyo, fried pork; and other specialties of the house.
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Mirbentz Jean Francois, chef-owner of Did You Eat Yet?, got his start making online cooking videos.Lane Turner/Globe Staff
Jean Francois grew up in Haiti, then Randolph, after his family came to this country nearly 20 years ago. “Things got really bad after the presidential coup,” he says. “A lot of people were fleeing. We got lucky. My dad worked at the US Embassy at the time, and we took advantage of that. My mom and me and my sister, we migrated to here Dec. 24, 2005.” His father stayed behind to work. Jean Francois was 14.
It wasn’t an easy transition. They came with just a suitcase, leaving everything they owned behind. He had to adjust to a different culture. He had to make new friends. But there were consolations.
“When I came here, I found all different types of food,” he says. “I never had that back home. I had Chinese food for the first time. I wanted to try everything. When I came here, it was very shocking, but at the same time it was a field day.”
Haitian mac and cheese, made with ground turkey and epis (far left); pwa congo, black pigeon beans and rice; and pikliz (foreground) share a platter with sos cabrit (goat stew, at right). In the background are fried plantains and akra, root vegetable fritters. Lane Turner/Globe Staff
His mother taught him to cook at an early age. Now his palate was expanding. Eventually, Jean Francois brought his love of food to social media, cooking at home and posting videos. His catchphrase: “Did you eat yet?”
“I didn’t realize it was going to be a thing,” he says. “I was just cooking to eat.” But more people started watching and leaving comments. One day he posted on Snapchat that friends should come by if they wanted to try the food he had made: Nearly 100 people showed up at his house. It was a thing.
As a caricature of chef-owner Mirbentz Jean Francois looks down from the window, a customer waits for lunch to be served at Did You Eat Yet? in the South End.Lane Turner/Globe Staff
Jean Francois began preparing Haitian dishes — oxtail with rice and beans; poule en sauce, stewed chicken — and delivering them to customers on the South Shore. He made and sold his own epis, the blend of peppers, garlic, aromatics, and herbs that is foundational to Haitian cuisine. Eventually he started cooking and serving food buffet-style at the grocery store America’s Food Basket, first in Brockton, then in Randolph. “In Randolph right now, I can honestly say that everyone goes there. People make a line for the food every day. It’s sold out every day,” he says.
Did You Eat Yet? is his first standalone venture, located near Boston Medical Center. On a recent afternoon, customers include people in scrubs, business suits, and construction vests, in equal measure. A passerby peers through the window, sees the Haitian mac and cheese, does a double take, and reverses direction toward the front door. The shop starts serving food at 11 a.m., and the fryers are bubbling. A staffer slices onions and peppers to make a fresh batch of pikliz, the spicy pickle that serves as a perfect counterpoint to rich and fried dishes.
Did You Eat Yet? is a convenience store with a counter serving Haitian food in the back.Lane Turner/Globe Staff
I order up a medium platter ($16.99), the container groaning with rice and pigeon peas, crisp-tender griyo, and Haitian mac and cheese, creamy and well seasoned and just a little bit spicy. But it’s Wednesday. I came for the lalo ($8.99), and it is a highlight of the meal. The greens have an almost tea-like flavor, and a texture similar to the Indian dish saag. Jean Francois is right: Its taste is unique, and I can imagine how happy customers must be to find the dish here, a craving that can be regularly satisfied. I’ll be back for more — but my next visit might be on a Monday, for black rice, or a Friday, for goat stew and fritay, assorted fried foods.
“Haitian food means everything to me. I wake up dreaming about Haitian food. I want to be an advocate for Haitian food,” Jean Francois says. “Not a lot of people know about Haitian food yet. I can tell people, ‘This is what Haitian food is. Try this, try that.’ Giving people Haitian food is sharing part of the culture with them. When you taste our food, this is everything.”
700 Albany St., South End, Boston, 401-484-8574, Instagram @didyoueat_yet. Store open Mon-Fri 8 a.m.-6 p.m.; food available starting at 11 a.m.
Devra First can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her @devrafirst.
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Publish date : 2024-10-15 12:59:00
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