“We don’t eat the eyes back home”

While everyone at home should be eating hamburgers and pasta salad, watching the fireworks and drinking Harpoon…I’ll recount my most intimate experiences with Ghanaian culture so far—my experiences with the local food. Adams, Pathfinder’s driver, has taken a liking to feeding me Ghanaian dishes (usually from a local stand) and laughing at me while he watches me eat them. I think he just gets a kick out of the fact that something so ordinary to him is so new to me. Most of this food I’ve eaten thanks to Adams, but my only homemade dishes were prepared at Getrude’s house:

Banku with Tilapia—Banku is made of cassava and fermented corn, is white and has the consistency of wet cookie dough. Sounds delicious, right? Although the actual banku (you're given a huge serving about the size of a flattened softball-or two smaller ones as in this photo) is pretty tasteless, it is served with a red gravy or hot pepper sauce (I was given “gravy” as the “pepay” was deemed too hot for me) and a whole tilapia, which make for an enjoyable meal. Banku with tilapia is eaten with your hands; you use your right hand (left is rude or just not used) to break off pieces of the banku to scoop the sauce and the fish. This is messy, but bowls of water to clean your hands are provided before and after the meal. I’ve eaten this twice and both times have eaten more parts of the fish than I have ever eaten before. Adams always looks at me and laughs when we are nearing the end of the meal…as I just can’t eat the eyes of the fish and never seem to be able to leave my plate as clean as he does.

Beans and rice—This is called something like “watsid”, although I’m really not sure. From a stand around lunchtime, this is a spicy and salty mixture of crushed beans and rice. It looks a little like corned beef hash and tastes pretty good.

Porridge and kosi—Ghanaian porridge is made of mashed corn, spices and as much sugar as you want to add to it. It has a thin consistency and is generally drank from a cup rather than spooned. I have to say this was my least favorite experience so far, partly because I’m not a morning person and partly because the porridge is grey (literally) and the combination of whatever spices along with many cubes of sugar just didn’t suit me. However, the kosi (savory biscuits made out of mashed beans), which are served alongside the porridge are wonderful—tasty, bite size, and fried just long enough. The kosi made the porridge experience worthwhile.

Shellfish on stick and kenkey—On our way back from the Volta region, we bought some treats from street vendors walking up to the car. One was a stick filled with unidentifiable shellfish, which were pretty good although very salty and covered in a strange rub. I also had sugar kenkey (as opposed to a savoury kenkey), which is made from fermented corn and sweetened as a sort of dessert. It is much firmer than banku and can be eaten with your hand right out of the plaintain leave with which it is covered.

Beans and fried plantains—I went to Getrude’s house last Saturday and had the pleasure (true pleasure!) of eating two home-cooked meals! The first was a mixture of white beans, tomatoes and onions cooked into a warm stew. This was served with delicious fried plantains…mmmm…probably my favorite meal thus far, just because it was so good and very simple.

Fufu—Fufu is a little like banku in texture, but consists of a mixture cassava and plaintains, instead of the fermented corn. Fufu is made with a HUGE mortar and pestle by two people. One person mashes the cooked cassava and plantain, while the other sitting close to the bowl kneads the mixture around and around, adding water and making sure enough of each ingredient is included. It’s pretty amazing to watch the rhythmic way in which this is done; I kept wondering how Getrude’s mother’s fingers weren’t getting pounded. When all of this very exhausting work was done (about 40 minutes later), the fufu was served! A ball of fufu was put in a bowl of red soup (palm oil soup…I think) and served with one chicken leg. Again, it was delicious and tastier than the banku, probably thanks to the addition of plantains.

Milo—One of my most favorite things about traveling outside the US is escaping the idea that chocolate is not a breakfast food. In Ghana, as other places, this manifests itself in a warm chocolate drink taken by children and adults alike. Milo (manufactured by Nestle) is truly more malt flavored than chocolate and is made with hot water, extra sugar (obviously), and Carnation evaporated filled milk. Milo is touted as an energy drink and is allegedly filled with vitamins to keep one “strong, healthy and energetic!” I don’t know about you…but I’m a believer.