Jewel of a Haitian Restaurant

I didn't plan to do any restaurant reviews, but I had dinner with some observers at a Haitian restaurant in Miami Beach that I liked so much, I went back a few nights later.

It's called Tap-Tap, the Haitian name for the brightly painted mini-buses and trucks that ordinary Haitians use to get around in Port-au-Prince. That's "tap-tap" because you tap on the side of the vehicle to let the rider know you want to get on or off, or at least that's what someone explained to me.

Tap-Tap Haitian Restaurant is brightly painted too: all the walls and furniture are covered with beautiful Haitian art in bright colors, there are sculptures all around, even the swinging doors to the kitchen are decorated with red hearts and white birds. Some of the art seemed to be symbols from Haitian vodou, the West African spiritual practices the Haitians brought over with them and preserved through years of slavery.

There was music, too, a jam session with a female singer who did lovely jazzy, compas-sounding things. Well-known Haitian musicians such as Manno Charlemagne are on the schedule there regularly.

The maitresse d'hotel is willowy, gracious, et tres sympathique, and the food was delicious. You can have goat or conch if you're feeling adventurous, or fall back on very tasty salads and chicken. Tap-Tap is a good bet if you're hungry and anywhere near South Beach.

But what I liked most about the place was that it had the feel of a community center, and lots of people seemed to know each other. The restauruant has been open for ten years now, the hostess said (which is a long time in the restaurant biz), so they must be doing a lot of things right.

I picked up a leaflet that said the restaurant had launched a benefit drive to help Haitian victims of the recent floods there. Two thousand four hundred Haitians died and 1,000 are still missing in the floods from Tropical Storm Jeanne in Seprtember. About 200,000 are still homeless, and the poverty there was already so terrible that the country has very few resources to help them.

You can send a tax-deductible donation to help them to Crowing Rooster Arts, c/o Tap Tap Restaurant, 819 5th Street, Miami Beach, FL 33139. Please note "Disaster Relief" on the bottom of the check. For more information contact taptap@bellsouth.net or Peter Stearn at 305-672-2898.

Here's a poem by a Haitian poet that someone had made into a leaflet I came across there:

Trip to the Moon

I'm going to take a trip to the moon
I've had it with life down here
Everything's already been said
I'm on my way to the moon
On the moon there's neither bad nor good
Neither stupid nor wise
No people from cities or from the hills
All men are men on the moon
There they speak just one language
I'm finished with life down here
Civilization has spent my fuel
Also broken my soul
Everywhere I turn to look
Life turns in on itself
Civilzation has finished this race
So I'm going to live on the moon
It stopped being civil ages ago
I'm taking a trip to the moon
They tell me there's no king on the moon
No section chief
Or country judge
They tell me there's no overseer
And, no, not even a pope
I've got to go to the moon
Great, I tell, you, it's got to be great
The night is clearer than day
No time, no time for sleep at all
No time for work or play
At night I'll watch the earth's clear glow
Clearer than the sun
The stars are as close as fireflies on trees
And on the moon there is no heat
No cold
Misery
Or mud
Everyone there has forgotten war
Civilization, too
The old have even forgotten disease
I'm going to live on the moon
In the evening I'll tell stories to the kids
And if they ask what the earth is like
I'll tell them it always spins
Held up by a bogeywomen they call Civilization
Who crushes people like ants

- Felix Morisseau-Leroy
(Translation by Jeffrey Knapp)

On the way home on WLRN, a jazz station, they were playing Diane Krahl's rendition of "The Boulevard of Broken Dreams," an old Nat King Cole favorite. Seemed appropriate.

On a lighter note, Jesse Jackson had a good line on "moral values":
"Everyone believes in prayer in the schools. As long as there are exams on Friday, there will be prayer in the schools.