The "Festival des Accras, Créole en Fête" is back in Paris for its 6th edition, from September 16 to 18, 2022 at the Parc Floral de Paris. During 3 days, discover and taste accras of all kinds. Competitions will choose the best ones! What will be your favorites?
This festive and gustatory event, designed to promote and enhance the Creole gastronomy, awaits us this year on the theme "acras for all tastes". It is anopportunity to taste a traditional dish very appreciated in the Antilles-Guyana, but also to exchange with professionals of the food industry in a very friendly atmosphere. Competitions are set up for our greatest pleasure.
On the program:
- Exhibitions,
- Culinary workshops (adults and children),
- Culinary demonstrations with the Gastronomic Circle of Creole Chefs,
- Surprises...
As a reminder, cod accras, or acras or akras, are small fried fritters made of cod, herbs, spices, more or less spiced with cayenne pepper. The acras appear as a custom on Good Friday. The word "acra" means "vegetable fritters" in the Ewe language of Dahomey. This is a key region from which future slaves were taken to be sold to Europeans at the ports. One can deduce that acras originated in Africa.
When the slaves arrived in Martinique, they came with certain food crops, but also with a culinary baggage that the women working in the household reproduced in the kitchens of the masters. The cod acras were called "Lozi" which means "eye of cayman" in the Dahomey language, but this term totally disappeared in the 1960s in favor of "accra de morue".
Traditional appetizer of the West Indian and Guyanese cuisine, served as an aperitif or as an appetizer, acras are usually eaten with salad and bread. They are usually eaten during the 4 days of the Pascal weekend (from Good Friday to Easter Monday). Quickly cooked, it is its composition that makes the difference in the tasting.
Indeed, acras can be prepared with other fish, shellfish and even with vegetables (with giraumon and hard cabbage). Some people prefer them with chicken, or for the most discerning gourmets, with shrimps, lobster or lambis...
In Guadeloupe, Haiti, Martinique, they are light, soft and crispy, and can be more or less sweet, or spiced with cayenne pepper, bird pepper, chili sauce, and other Tabasco (sauce), and also prepared with shellfish, fish, shrimp, lobster, sea urchin, tuna, chaubettes (shellfish), titiris... there are also acras with vegetables, giraumon (a type of pumpkin) and malanga. They are traditionally eaten on Good Friday fasting days, in the Catholic families of the West Indies.
Cod acras are also part of the Catalan cuisine, in Spain as well as in Portugal, under the name of "fritters"(bunyols in Catalan or buñuelos in Spanish, pasteis or bolinhos in Portuguese). They are not very spicy and are served as an appetizer, as a starter, or sometimes as an accompaniment to platos combinados (mixed plates/tapas).
On this occasion, the restaurant partners of the Academy of Culinary Arts of the Creole World will offer a menu or a special dish on the theme of "accras ". This gastronomic event of the Creole World aims to encourage economic development and the promotion of actors from various backgrounds: actors of the gastronomy, agricultural sector, tourism, education, culture, solidarity, training, local authorities accompanying the festive events in the form of: tastings, picnics, banquets, special menus in restaurants, visits to farms or street entertainment.
These
3 days of festival are the occasion to discover and taste a gastronomic cooking elaborated with
fresh products cultivated in France. The Academy thus pursues its objective to highlight the know-how, the gestures and the work of the professionals, through this festival. The diversity and quality of the products as well as the culinary techniques are criteria of selections which value the Creole gastronomy.
This event is in any case the opportunity for us to discover the chefs and craftsmen who work with passion. Note that access to
this event is free. In order to access without paying the usual entrance fee to the Parc Floral, you will have to remember to take your
free reservation ticket to present it at the entrance.
