Food Glorious Food

Atkins would never fly here. Everything I eat has starch whether it's rice, yams, plantains, cassava or bread. And it is usually accompanied by some kind of spicy, oily soup or stew. It is certainly filling and on hot afternoons, it can render me comatose. (Would a reference to the itis be appropriate here? Or too much cultural baggage?) When I go to town, I'll try to stop by a fruit stand on my way back to buy pineapple, bananas and/or oranges. The lady there knows me (I'm pretty easy to recognize) and calls me Sister. In general, however, fruit and vegetables are hard to come by so you can imagine that my digestive system has undergone quite an adjustment. I've been taking multi-vitamins religiously to compensate, but they can never replace some good old fashioned carrots and celery.

I usually don't eat breakfast on the weekdays. Lately, I've been waking up early around 4:30 to go for a run - a small victory each day. It's the only time I feel comfortable jogging outside because 1) it's not sweltering and 2) few people are out so stares are minimal. With running and showering, etc. I don't have time for a meal, which is fine.

For lunch, I eat what the schoolchildren eat from the canteen (a word I find very quaint for some reason). After all the children are served, teachers get their portions. The meals each week cycle through some semblance of the following:

Monday: Rice & sauce
Tuesday: Kenkey
Wednesday: Banku
Thursday: Rice & beans & sauce
Friday: Repeat one of the above

You're asking, "What the heck are kenkey and banku?" Just wait, full details pending.

Since lunch is usually generous, I will sometimes opt out of supper (another quaint word). When I don't, my host mom will prepare something for me. I've noticed that she tries to keep it westernized. Often I get rice or pasta with some salad. Of course, I always make sure to finish my greens. Sometimes, she'll make something local like fried plantains or fufu - two of my favorites. (Fufu details also pending.)

Sometimes when I'm out with friends, we'll order food at a restaurant. Usually it's a stew with some kind of meat. I always assume it's beef, but I think I've eaten goat as well. Sometimes I ask, sometimes I don't. I figure it won't kill me. The other day, my friend ordered some meat in a stew with rice balls. It was super spicy and super delicious. I should also mention that all food is eaten with hands from a communal bowl. I've been good about the whole when-in-Rome thing but I still haven't mastered eating rice with my hands. (Lezi, thank you for the chopsticks!)

I've had a chance to taste a lot of the local foods here but I thought I would spotlight a few of the most common. I also threw in a few of the popular drinks.

Fufu - the signature food of the Ashanti Region where I live. People make this from scratch which involves pounding cassava and plantains with a mortar and pestle. You can always tell when a family is making fufu because you can hear the pounding. The result is a sticky, dough-like ball that you eat by dipping in a spicy palm nut stew.











I'm helping to pound fufu for supper.



















Banku - (I can't find a specific link, sorry.) I think this is made from cassava. You tear bits of beaten cassava and dip it in okra soup. Spicy and oily okra soup (of course).

Kenkey - the signature food of the Accra Region, kenkey is cornmeal wrapped in corn husks to cook. The result tastes a little like sourdough and has the consistency of firm mashed potatoes. This is also served with a spicy sauce.












Jollof Rice - reminds me of Chinese fried rice which is fine by me.












Pitou - (Again, can't find a link.) This is a local beer of sorts. It is served in a halved, hollowed out calabash shell. It's fermented, but doesn't bubble the way beer normally does. It has a tartness to it but overall isn't bad. I think it would be better cold, but refrigeration isn't a strong point here (hard to imagine, I know).

Palm Wine - distilled from the roots of palm trees. It is sweet (too sweet in my opinion) and usually served at room temperature or a little warmer.

Akpeteshi - palm wine in concentrate. They evaporate all the water out of palm wine and it eventually becomes a clear, super-strong gin. I think I'm going to steer clear of akpeteshi as much as I can (go ahead and read between the lines if you want).

Epilogue:
I take a certain pride in being open to new foods and I think I've fared pretty well in Ghana. I generally like the food though it tends to be a little too starchy and oily for my taste. But I thought I would throw out another list ... a list of foods that I really miss:

- All Asian foods: Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, Japanese, Thai
- Beers: Yuengling, Fat Tire, Lagunitas, Bell's, Chimay, Yards
- Burgers from The Bulldog and New Deck
- Moriarty's wings
- Dunkin' Donuts iced coffee
- Coke Zero
- Hummus with pita chips, carrots or peppers
- Pasta with Muir Glen sauce (shameless plug)
- Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream
- Wawa hoagies & coffee
- Whole Foods salad bar
- Pizza
- Yogurt

Okay I need to stop because this is making me really depressed.

Instead, I thought I'd post some pictures of my host sisters. Enjoy.

This is Precious (Age 11), me (Age 25) and Serwaa (Age 5).


Precious, Michelle (Age 0) and Watema (Age 3).
















The girls and some neighborhood kids who come over to play.