After the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, I was part of a disaster response team. It was the first time I tasted pikliz: a cabbage-carrot, vinegar with super spicy pepper mix… kind of like a coleslaw without any cream, just pure vinegar based. With every dish, you could have the potential of pikliz on the side. It was all homemade, family recipes of how much vinegar to how much pepper ratio and, of course, what was available. Sometimes, it would be the perfect spice level for your palate. And the next time, it would blow your head off with just the pure heat level. You put this littlest, tiniest bit of pikliz on your plate, and, all of a sudden, the flavors would dance and come to life. And that just stuck with me. After I left Haiti, I tried to recreate it but could never create that little bit of magic of these most simple of ingredients coming together. To have it at such a time when food was so scarce, to have this little bit of joy consistently… that’s what I saw it as. I think even if you got the recipe right, you’re missing that.