Boulangerie Eva – The Best Fast Food Around

      Eva is the best fast food around. Eva is also a boulangerie, a bakery. Great bread, pastries, and cookies. You will find Eva on the National Route 2 that runs from Port-au-Prince west along the coast past Gressier, through Léogâne, on past Grand-Goâve, Petit-Goâve, and Miragoane before turning south into and over the mountains down to the south coast. Eva is on the outskirts of Léogâne. As you drive west from PAP, look for Eva on the left just at the point where you turn off the National 2 to go into Léogâne proper.  Everyone stops at Eva to eat. They have sandwiches and cold drinks, cakes, cookies, and bread. Eva is popular. There are even street vendors in and around Léogâne who sell Eva’s bread. And there are stores in Léogâne that sell Eva’s bread.

     Since the Christianville dining hall was closed yesterday, Meer and I had to find something to eat. So when Makendy got back from Petit-Goâve, we got into the Ford Everest and headed over to Eva for lunch. I ordered a sandwich jambon fromage and Meer ordered a cheeseburger (he’s so American sometimes). We also got a couple of “paté” which is a puff pastry with ground meat filling (une pâte feuilletée renfermant de la viande). And a bag of cookies for dessert. My sandwich cost 100 gourdes. The cheeseburger was 115 gourdes. The exchange rate is about 43 gourdes to the dollar, it comes out to about $2.30 for my sandwich and $2.60 for Meer’s cheeseburger.

Boulangerie Eva, Léogâne

     Meer likes Eva because you can see the kitchen staff preparing your food. And they wear plastic gloves like back home. The food is good although my sandwich would probably make my French friends grimace. Le sandwich jambon fromage contained ham and cheese, as advertised, but it also had onions, tomatoes, and a little green pepper tossed in. There was also a splash of ketchup. In fact, the seasonings looked a lot like what was in Meer’s cheeseburger.

     As we ate, I asked Makendy who Eva is. He did not know so he went to the counter and asked. When he came back he told me that Eva is a “notaire”. There is no close equivalent in the U.S. but the notaire in Haiti functions like a notaire in France. Notaires handle property purchases and sales and they validate contracts and agreements. They also estimate property values. So it is close to what a realtor does in the U.S. but more. Not quite a lawyer but more than a realtor. Anyway, Eva owns the whole lot, the boulangerie, the small grocery store next to it, the gas station, and the Western Union office on the edge of the lot. No guns are allowed in Eva and there are no guys with shotguns standing in the doorway. However, like most stores around here, Eva does not accept credit cards. So bring your gourdes or U.S. dollars.