Global Navy! We Know you love food, good food at that, but how many different types of food have you allowed yourself to try? No we do not mean the general pastas, to seafood categories but different CULTURAL foods. Many of us like to keep it safe & stick to what we know, which is why travelling can be so important! It opens your mind to new possibilities & definitely Fantastic Food. Today we are going to dabble into a pretty popular but yet still unknown dish… Griot! Allow us to share a little story with you.

“Have you ever had griot?”

My friend asked me that at a dinner party she hosted this winter. Not only had I never had griot, I had never even heard the word spoken aloud. (It’s pronounced GREE-oh or gree-OH.) Up until that evening, griot a classic Haitian dish of pork and PORK ONLY cubes simmered in chiles and citrus, then fried had been something I had only read about, a signifier of an exotic-sounding recipe I couldn’t quite picture.

The problem was that when I read recipes for the dish, they ran counter to all my experience with braising meat. I use the classic French technique that has you sear your meat first, then simmer it in liquid. This gives you that dark bronzed exterior and depth of flavor in the sauce, which comes from all the caramelized bits on the bottom of the pan.

A Haitian griot turns this on its head. The meat is simmered in its marinade until tender, then browned (usually fried in a skillet). Instead of building flavor from the pan drippings, the sauce is the pork’s cooking liquid reduced down to a shiny glaze.

The result of this braising method, I learned that night , is deeply flavored, crisp-edged meat with a melting center, and a sauce that’s bright and spicy from the citrus and chiles in the marinade.

how about pikliz (PICK-lees), a slaw-like pickle of green cabbage, carrots, sweet bell peppers and Scotch bonnet chiles, seasoned with onion and garlic and submerged in vinegar. In Haiti, pikliz may be served with any fried foods to cut through the richness, but it also zips up a simple bowl of rice and beans.

I put together a batch of pikliz a few weeks later when I made my griot using a recipe from her brother, though I went with the traditional pork shoulder.

Now that I’ve had griot, I have no problem picturing it. The problem is that I can’t get it out of my mind.

If you have never tried it before, you are literally in the PERFECT place! Click Order Online on the tab next to “Blog” Choose Griot Meals and you literally can customize it HOWEVER you like at a GREAT price. From Wings to Snapper & of course your traditional Pork the options are limitless.

Happy Food Exploring Global Navy!