Kizin Creole (nee Chez Violette)

I'm hoping that my search only missed the main thread for this restaurant, and that LTH hasn't missed it completely! We've been intending to eat at Chez Violette for some time, it's walking distance for us and we've been having spotty success with Sweet Nick's. I'd exhausted myself gardening, so I decided to call in a delivery order and have the spouse pick it up for me.

I had a lovely phone interactions with the friendly proprietor, who expressed polite amusement at how I knew my way around the menu but completely butchered the pronunciation. I ordered a Pâté Morue (Codfish Patty) an order of my favorites - banane pesée (tostones) and a pork griot which came with that fiery coleslaw and Haitian red beans and rice. Dessert today was pain patate, which I also ordered because I'd never had an authentic version before.

The food was ready in 20 minutes, and as soon as I got it, I immediately dove into the star of the show: the Codfish patties, which were not at all like the Jamaican version: a large slab of excellent puff pastry folded around a small amount of tasty filling that really reminded me of crabmeat. Delicious. They also offer a beef, a chicken and a vegetarian version.

The banane pesee were very good - but probably better if we'd gotten them in-house. As per my own tradition, I used the cole slaw that came with the Griot on them - OMG. If you have been looking for a way to remove your lips from your face, this is the way to begin: the fact that the cole slaw was more orange than white should have been a clue. Sweet Nick's cole slaw is hot, but this stuff requires a Hazmat suit - the orange bits are chiffonaded raw scotch bonnets, which were about a 1.5:1 ratio to cabbage. While I don't like spicy food, for some reason I can tolerate scotch bonnets - but not by the mouthful. Wow!

The Griot was OK - it's not a preparation for pork that makes sense to me (I believe it is stewed and then deep-fried; I love the turkey version at Sweet Nick's.) The fatty bits were pretty good, but a lot of it was chewy and dry (again, remember this was takeout, so maybe fresh from the fryer is better.) The red beans and rice were subtly flavorful (I prefer Sweet Nick's, which are highly seasoned.) However, there are a number of proteins on the menu that I will come back to explore: in particular, a chicken in rosemary butter that sound spectacular.

Another surprise was the Pain Patate (since it's made from potatoes - it's not a pretty dessert, but don't let that stop you) - my own homemade version was subtly spiced with ginger; this one was downright spicy, with the occasional tiny chunk of ginger finding its way between your teeth. It was a bit of a surprise when I was expecting a gentle, custardy dessert - but very good, a nice follow-up to the fiery slaw.

We'll be back.

Chez Violette
2311 W. Howard
Chicago, IL 60645
773-961-7275

By a coincidence - it happens to be the June destination of the Evanston Lunch Group. Details have not been posted yet.

the fact that the cole slaw was more orange than white should have been a clue. Sweet Nick's cole slaw is hot, but this stuff requires a Hazmat suit - the orange bits are chiffonaded raw scotch bonnets, which were about a 1.5:1 ratio to cabbage.

What you are describing is picklis, a spicy slaw like condiment made w/cabbage, scotch bonnets and vinegar. Most often paired w/your banane pesée (tostones) and griot kind of jiberito like, as a platform. When I lived in S. Florida, my Haitian neighbor Messieur Paul gave me his recipe for it (besides the definitive mojito made w/Barbancourt Rhum (also Haitian).

PICKLIS

6 Scotch bonnet peppers, stems removed, 1/4d
2 cups thinly sliced or shredded cabbage
1/2 cup thinly sliced or shredded carrots
1/4 cup thinly sliced or shredded onions
4 whole cloves
1 teaspoon salt
8 to 10 peppercorns
3 cups vinegar


Place hot peppers, cabbage, carrots, onion, cloves, salt, and peppercorn in a quart size jar

Add vinegar

Close jar tightly and let sit at least 24-48 hours before serving

Serve on tostones with meat or fish.

Yup, that's the stuff that Sweet Nick offers - I didn't detect carrots or even onion in the Chez Violette version (could be wrong, or we could just have gotten a particularly pungent batch) I think it's much higher in the Scotch Bonnet ratio than what you describe here.

Individual variances abound in Haitian cooking. There's very little documented. This recipe (and others I got) were gleaned by watching- generally w/the above mentioned mojito's involved.

Just offering fair warning to the folks like me...and an alert to the chili heads. TNX for the recipe, though - it's really good stuff.

http://www.wbez.org/series/kitchen-clos ... ate-103691

Makes me want to stop by, if I still lived in the city, pronto.

I am definitely hitting this place soon.

Hi. On Friday night, I made a trip up to Chez Violette (now known as Kizin Creole) with 3 other friends, one of whom is Haitian.

The location is still on 2311 W. Howard, near Western. The main sign that faces Howard still says Chez Violette but there is another sign over the doorway that says Kizin Creole.

When we arrived around 6pm, there was only one other party present. We ordered the following dishes:

1. Squash soup- chicken based, creamy soup with chunks of chicken. The small portion is enough to fill up one person i believe. We shared it amongst ourselves.
2. Griyo, aka Fried pork- fried chunks of pork. these were a tad on the dry side for me but still flavorful.
3. Fried beef- very flavorful and not as dry as the pork. Came with a nice side of black beans I believe which had a lot of gravy and tasted very nice with the white rice.
4. Roasted chicken
5. Stewed oxtails- nice and tender in a tomato based sauce.
6. Mushroom rice- the rice is cooked in mushroom stock and takes on a nice brown color. Flavorful and moist.
7. Red beans and rice- nicely flavored
8. White rice- cooked just right
9. 2 types of meat patties in a flaky crust. I was expecting these to be more like Jamaican patties but these were incredibly flaky and the fillings were delicious (ground beef and shredded chicken).
10. Fried plaintains- similar to tostones. These were moist and flavorful and went well with the picklis.

Overall, everybody loved the food. The food was well seasoned and freshly prepared. The picklis were delicious. Unlike the earlier reports, this picklis was very mild, as was all of the food. One woman in our group is sensitive to spice and had no problem eating it or any of the other dishes.

The service was very friendly. We ordered so much food that our waitress pulled up an extra table for us so we had plenty of room to spread out the dishes.

My Haitian friend ended up ordering some conch stew to go as well, and declared that her mother would even approve of the dishes. They offer a buffet the first Saturday of each month as well. I will definitely be back and look forward to trying some of the other dishes such as the goat stew.

Dined at Kizin Creole this evening with friends -- which made multiple dishes possible. Wonderful meal. Had the Pates -- aka Haitian patties -- puff pastry filled with a savory beef filling. Reminds one of the French roots of much Haitian culture. Then had the fried plantains with the spicy slaw -- very nice. Then the entrees began coming (these can take a while to prepare, so be prepared to wait a bit -- or follow the suggestion on the online menu and order in advance). Standouts were the stewed chicken -- very big on flavor, with peppers and onions and the kind of juice that makes you glad you ordered a rice dish -- and fried pork -- a little crispy, a little fatty, great combo of flavor and mouth feel. Of the two rice dishes, I favored the black mushroom rice, but some liked the red beans and rice better. The goat stew was very flavorful, but as is often the case with goat, the bone to meat ratio makes it less than ideal if you're really hungry. But hard to beat the flavor and definitely worth trying.

So a huge hit, and I'm definitely hoping to get back here at some point.

http://www.kizincreole.com/

Cynthia wrote:Dined at Kizin Creole this evening with friends ...

http://www.kizincreole.com/

took a look at the menu, if I was to see Lambi Stew on a menu board I would assume it's lamb, not conch.

Did you happen to notice if they still have a buffet like buttercream mentions?

buttercream wrote:They offer a buffet the first Saturday of each month as well.

Sweet Willie wrote:

Cynthia wrote:Dined at Kizin Creole this evening with friends ...

http://www.kizincreole.com/

took a look at the menu, if I was to see Lambi Stew on a menu board I would assume it's lamb, not conch.

Did you happen to notice if they still have a buffet like buttercream mentions?

buttercream wrote:They offer a buffet the first Saturday of each month as well.

As for "Lambi" -- I noticed that, too -- and since there were so many words that were from French or pidjin, and easily understood, I was surprised as well to see that it was conch.

As for a buffet, they didn't have it on Sunday, when we were there. Noticed a few fliers for special events, but didn't know to ask about a buffet.