RE: food

Dear Andrew,

What is the local food like? Have you been doing a photo documentary of it like Nicaragua?
Hope you are well

Courtney

Dear Courtney,

This blog would have been incomplete without a post on the local food. I'll do my best to answer your question. For starters read the sign here. That was our welcome to the local cuisine and I haven't seen a more apt description. 

Here is fufu. You have to use your fingers. This dish is with grass cutter, a large rodent (gerbil looking thing) that they hunt in the grass and clean and sell by the roadside stretch. I have a picture of me and snails in fufu I'll have to post later. The snail was huge. Another thing people in the village hunt for and sell on the side of the road. The texture wasn't bad but it tasted a little mossy so i just a had a couple bites and mostly left the gallon sized bowl of cassava goo and spicy spicy snail untouched.

.  This is waakye. As nasty as it looks it sounds like something I would do. It's a mix of rice, beans, spaghetti, boiled egg and some red spice. The workers here eat it at least once a day and always "invite" me. I've sampled it and the beans are really smoky and the spice is hot and not good. I haven't worked up the courage to try that slimy stuff smeared on the egg. Oh, and I think I see some cabbage in there as well. They are usually very large portions and its pretty cheap. 

 There are street vendors everywhere you go. Here this lady is roasting plantains and corn. I haven't had the roasted plantain but the corn isn't too bad, they dip it in salt water after it roasts.

 Another street vendor that sells (I think) goat kebabs. Goats run everywhere, I'm not sure what the green is but I'm sure its spicy.

 As delectable as it all looks sometimes its better to pass. because, well as they say on Hospital Street in Koforidua, "Stomach No Holiday" and how...

 This is what I eat. It might not look that appetizing but on the fresh roll on the left is cheese and avacado and on the right is banana and peanut butter and nutella. There is a backery here, they only really make a couple types of bread a sweet and butter loaf. The bread is pretty expensive (about what we pay in the states) but there seems to be a good market for it. Avocados and bananas are everywhere and cheap. Peanut butter is made locally so fresh and organic and very good. Cheese is hard to find. This stuff was the european spreadable. 

 We have a hard time keeping the fruit stocked. It only lasts a day or two but it is worth looking for. The locals don't eat it as much as you'd think so we haven't either but I think that will change soon.  Near the camera you see sugar cane. I guess you're just supposed to gnaw on that stuff and suck out the sweet goodness. I passed on it. 

So Court hopefully that helps you get a better feel for what the local food is like. Bon Appetite! You're Invited!

Andrew