We Find Fine Haitian Food in North Texas at Sophia's Haitian Cuisine Food Truck

Not everything should be political, but let’s not kid ourselves: it is. So when Haitian immigrants were in the news recently, yet another hit-and-run victim of the increasingly common mean-spirited politicized election cycle we find ourselves seemingly permanently trapped in, we decided to do something about it. The “something” in this case was to seek out some Haitian food, to find a Haitian restaurant that was serving up food from the island nation on Hispaniola. The goal was to cleanse both our palates and our souls in a show of what little solidarity is possible.

This was easier said than done, our crack research assistant having scoured the interwebs for Haitian food in North Texas before finding just a single example: a food truck called Sophia’s Haitian Cuisine. It's based primarily around Celina and environs, but on this day it was parked outside a fitness center in Plano.
Kavin Adisson is the owner and operator of this family-run business named after his wife; he's assisted occasionally by his teenage son. Adisson is from Haiti by way of New Jersey. Settling in the Dallas area in 2017, he first dipped his toes in the creation and delivery of comfort food from his homeland in 2020 after noticing the same dearth of Haitian food that we did. He started by catering events and festivals before finally going all-in with a food truck.

The truck serves seasonal favorites such as joumou soup at New Year’s as well as a hot dog that receives good reviews on social media. But the bread and butter is the pikliz, plantains and meat platters that are permanent fixtures on the menu.

Pikliz is as Haitian as you can get (Adisson sported a black tee that said “Got Pikliz?” on the day we visited). It serves as both a condiment and a salad, and it’s made with pickled cabbage, carrots and hot peppers such as Scotch bonnet. It’s delightfully piquant, and Haitians put it on everything. The previously mentioned hot dog, for example, is slathered in this slaw, and it’s also one of the toppings on the loaded plantains we ordered.
The healthy portion of deep-fried plantains was topped, in this case, by moist and tender seasoned shredded chicken, special sauce and the ubiquitous pikliz. It was a hot mess in the best possible way and very filling. You can go with fried pork chunks instead, and substitute fries for the plantains as well.
We also ordered another traditional Haitian snack, the pâté, sort of a Caribbean take on an empanada or an Indian samosa. A thin layer of dough surrounds the stuffing, which can be either beef, chicken or veggies (potatoes, onions, mushrooms and sweet peppers), and then it's deep-fried. We opted for the beef version. It had a much more complex flavor than expected, much more than deep-fried ground beef.
Our final item was a griot platter: tender and marbled chunks of pork lightly fried that fell apart in the mouth in a melting of rich flavor and texture. It was one of our better bites this year. The platter comes with plantains, sauce and, of course, pikliz, along with the rice of the day, or in this case seafood pasta. We would have preferred rice, but on this day it was pasta as a side.
Other platter protein choices include goat, poulet (chicken drumsticks) and vegan (potatoes, onions, mushroom and sweet peppers).

We highly recommend checking out this food. The current month’s schedule of locations and times is usually posted to their Instagram or Facebook page. Make the effort to search Sophia's out; you’ll be glad you did, whether it's your palate or your soul that needs cleansing.