West African food in Cleveland

Yum Village is a new Cleveland restaurant that features West African and Caribbean food.

  It’s at 2215 Chester, right across from Cleveland State University.  We spoke with one of the owners Carasai Ihentuge who said there are 2 Yum Villages in his hometown of Detroit.  

Most of the food in the 2,400-square-foot space is non-GMO and vegan, but meat and chicken dishes are offered. Most are not very spicy.  

Carasai’s father is from Lagos, Nigeria and he grew up eating this food. 

 For us meat lovers, try the Flip Village Combo which is Mango Curry Chicken with Ginger Curry Chickpeas and White Potato Flips over a bed of delicious Coconut Rice or the DJ Village Combo which is Jezebel Peach Honey Mustard Chicken over Turmeric Rice served with Truffle Oil Greens and White Potato Flips. Neither is spicy. 

Watch Carasai talk about the restaurant and the food.

See  more at Nigerians in Cleveland

Fun with Maps - Haiti

Haiti is located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean Sea, to the east of Cuba and Jamaica and south of The Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands. It occupies the western three-eighths of the island which it shares with the Dominican Republic.

 Haiti has an estimated population of 11.4 million, making it the most populous country in the Caribbean.  The people have suffered a lot. Since 1998, Haiti has been hit by ten hurricanes and other tropical storms, causing widespread loss of life and flooding with every landfall. Other natural disasters, such as the 2010 earthquake, have also resulted in massive amounts of death and property and infrastructure damage, especially in urban areas like Port-au-Prince, the capital.  

They have a proud history as the first independent nation of Latin America and the Caribbean, the second republic in the Americas, the first country to abolish slavery, and the only state in history established by a successful slave revolt.