Okay, so I don’t really have everything, but you’ll get the gist. I basically don’t really care for any of the Ghanaian food here, but I need to survive, so I eat. I guess if anything my favorite food here is coco yams and contumere. Here is a picture of contumere. It is basically coco yam leaves that are boiled with gari (grinded cassava) and tomatoes and fish and some other stuff. Its kind of like spinach I guess in some sort of way, maybe like lau lau. I actually think its kind of funny that I like contumere of all things, because it’s a healthier dish and I don’t usually do healthy… I guess now I can brag to my grandma that I eat greens!
Then here is fufu. You can actually make fufu, I hear there is an online recipe for it… you should try it one night, its mighty delicious! But anyways, uh, so fufu is boiled coco yams and plantains that are pounded, almost like how we pound mochi. You usually eat it with light soup and fish or chicken or beef or snail or grass cutter or bush meat. Speaking of grasscutters, I don’t have a picture of one, but I’m sure you can google it and find out, but it looks like a huge rat, and it tastes sooo good. It reminds me of pipikaula (I think that’s the right name)… like a smoked chicken/fish taste. I actually ate the meat before I got to see what a grass cutter looked like… I think if it was the other way around I probably wouldn’t have tried it.
Then here is fufu. You can actually make fufu, I hear there is an online recipe for it… you should try it one night, its mighty delicious! But anyways, uh, so fufu is boiled coco yams and plantains that are pounded, almost like how we pound mochi. You usually eat it with light soup and fish or chicken or beef or snail or grass cutter or bush meat. Speaking of grasscutters, I don’t have a picture of one, but I’m sure you can google it and find out, but it looks like a huge rat, and it tastes sooo good. It reminds me of pipikaula (I think that’s the right name)… like a smoked chicken/fish taste. I actually ate the meat before I got to see what a grass cutter looked like… I think if it was the other way around I probably wouldn’t have tried it.
Here is me trying to pound fufu… I don’t know if you can tell, but the small boy Yao is laughing at me… it was my first time pounding and so they all were laughing at me. Pounding fufu is hard work, and most families here eat fufu almost every day.
Here is a little story about my sickness and how it relates to food:
So the other week I got sick and tried to go to the hospital (I say tried because we went to the hospital, but because it was lights out; meaning no electricity, so electricity here even if you have it is very unreliable) but since no one was there they just took me home… which was totally okay because I was feeling better. But isn’t that reassuring to know that if it was an emergency I would’ve been shit out of luck?! Haha, jk… theres another hospital in our district capital which isn’t too far away, but this hospital was closer. Maybe I shouldn’t call it a hospital, maybe a clinic is a better term for it? Anyways, so my neighbors/tenants that I live with kept telling me that I need to start making my own food since I chop (buy food from street vendors) every day for all my meals. And how its unhealthy to buy chop, or how its unhealthy for me to eat so much eggs (and I don’t even really like eggs!), blah blah blah. So since I want them to stop telling me what to do and since the gas stove is up and working I started to make food (okay, so I really only made food a few times, but I don’t like cooking in the dark and its difficult cooking for only one person and I think more expensive too and junji doesn’t like my cooking)… but well, you see, here in Ghana at the market all you can get is tomatoes, peppers, onions, okra (grosss!), garden eggs (not all that yummy either), and eggs! The starches here are fairly easy to make, like rice, yams, plantain… and I actually like eating them, but I can’t just eat starch! (where is taco bell when you need it!) So hmm, what delicious meals can I make with that?! Oh yea, not to mention that I my cooking back home consisted of making deli sandwiches (not possible here, but I do miss my ham and turkey sandwiches...mmm, subway!), heating up pizza in the microwave (no microwave pizza here ): I might attempt to make pizza though, maybe later in the year when I’m more confident with my cooking abilities), making saimin (possible, theres this brand called indomie its Indonesian, but its too hot to eat saimin here, plus no kamoboko! But on a plus side, well, actually I don’t know if it’s a plus really, I rediscovered how wonderful raw saimin is… if I close my eyes I almost think I’m eating chips. I bought some generic brand of Pringles at this expensive obroni store, but basically ate it all within five minutes, not a pretty site at all. I feel sorry for the first person I eat a meal with when I get to America, I will probably embarrass you by a.) eating with my hands b.) stuffing my face c.) eating all my food, even the things I didn’t like so fast while making pig noises.), and mmm, yea, that’s basically where it ends! So I made a new years resolution to learn how to cook. I’ve started with simple things, tomato sauce with pasta and garlic bread and fried eggs. I now think its safe to say that I’m a pro at making tomato sauce and frying eggs… but then again, I think even a 3 year old could make it… so I guess it doesn’t count for much, but it’s a start and it just may be the first new years resolution that I might accomplish!
So if any of you have great cooking receipes that you could tell me about, tell away! Just know that what I have to work with is limited. I could get meat/chicken, but its like straight after its been chopped alive, so I think for now I would rather stay away from meats and be okay with just buying them from the vendors. I befriended the meat kebab man because I buy from him at least a couple times a week, he usually dashes me a kebab so I’m happy. My Ghanaian friend is suppose to teach me how to make emotou and nkatekwan (rice balls and ground nut soup), so I’m really excited about that… its my favorite Ghanaian food (okay, so I guess I have two favorites) and junjis too, but that doesn’t really count because junji eats everything! Except peanut butter… weird dog. I went over to her house the other day and ate fufu and contumerekwan (kwan=soup) and it was actually delicious! I guess I’m sort of liking Ghanaian food… never thought I would see the day… and its even weirder that somedays I’ll actually crave bayere Empesi and adua (and I don’t even like beans!)
that is rice balls and contumere soup
Okay, back to food pictures. So here is red red, its fried plantains and beans. I used to hate this, but some how I’m starting to be okay with it. I usually get it with gari, which I think makes it taste better. I usually get it when I want to feel cheap because its only costs me 30 peswas and it usually fills me up (I even am able to share with junji and still be somewhat satisfied).
This is what I usually get for lunch, its fried yams and chicken with shito. Shito is super yummy… its like this spicy fish sauce. Usually I get the fried yams with pepe sauce which is kind of like salsa, but not. We have a pear tree (they call avacados pears here) outside our compound, so I’m really excited about that. Makes some guacamole and salsa! Yummy!
This is a picture from homestay, so the orange/red mixture is shito in the making. And then the green leaves are contumere leaves.
Here is another picture from homestay, this night we had a feast! Well, not really, but it did seem like we had a lot of food. So there is kenke, which is maize and its absolutely gross. Its like eating sour gross sticky stuff? I don’t even know how to explain it, but I don’t like it at all. In the corner is an egg sandwich (what I usually eat in the mornings for breakfast) and then we have some fried chicken (I eat this pretty often as well) and then some kind of soup with meat… I forget what it was we were eating that night.
Twi word of the day: wo noa da ben? what are you cooking?
by the way, i don't live at homestay anymore... those are just old pictures from homestay.
