The Tastes of Ghana

For those who were worried that I would come back skin and bones, fear not, I’ll be hitting the gym on January 1 with the rest of North America. The diet here is carb-heavy, and all food is served in large portions. My attempts to eat “small-small” are futile, as my host family is convinced I don’t enough and practically force feeds me and then sometimes I am just plain hungry. Fortunately, I actually like, or at least can tolerate most foods, speaking from both my stomach and palate. The only things I’ve come across that I cannot make myself eat is fish and goat. Mystery meat is something else that scares me, so for the most part, I just avoid meat, occasionally eating various fowl if it recognizably looks like a bird. I still also struggle with the concept of eating with my hands. If my family is not around, and if I can find one, I sometimes grab a spoon to finish off my food that way.

Beverages: Most people don’t have a fridge, so I’ve become accustomed to drinking warm things. I save the chilled sodas for when I eat out as it doubles their value as a special treat.

Drinking water here is a no-no. I purchase Pure Water, which is filtered to some degree. A 500-mL satchel goes for 5 pesewas, and can be purchased pretty much anyway. In markets you may sometimes see individuals selling clear bags of water. There is plenty of juice to be found, most is actually pure juice, and made in Ghana. The only downside is juice is expensive, but entirely worth every cedi spent on it. My favorite find is soy milk, natural and chocolate flavor. Always looking for protein alternatives ….

Doughy Ball Things: This pretty much describes most Ghanaian food. Below you will see me attempting to pound yams and cassava into fufu, which is then displayed on the right. Below the fufu is kenkey, which is fermented maize-based dough, served with fish and light soup. Definitely not my favorite. On the bottom left is Bo Froote, which is essentially a doughnut, and a staple in bus yards. I think they’d be fantastic rolled in sugar and cinnamon, but I have yet to find some cinnamon in this country.

  

  

Below left is tuo zafi (commonly called TZ), which is millet or maize porridge cooked until it is stiff and doughy, and a staple of many of the poorer families. On the right is a bean cake. I was surprised how good pounded and mashed and rolled up beans were, but possibly this delight was due to the fact that I knew this one was a little more than just carbs. I don’t have a picture of banku, but it is another fermented dough creation, served with a soup/stew as well.

  

Rice and Beans: I am very grateful for the presence of rice and beans in the Ghanaian diet. Even in Canada, they are two of my favourite foods, and I often eat them combined as they do here. I have also discovered gari (dried and ground cassava), which is the Ghanaian equivalent of farofa. On the right, you’ll see some fried plantains. I’ve never been a huge plantain fan, but the ones served here (again, cooked by my host mother), were actually pretty tasty!

  

Stews: Various stews of tomatoes and leaves, are often served over rice, or to accompany TZ, or just because. Most are pretty good (if they are fish free, that is), especially the ones my host mother makes. Everything is Ghana is well cooked to mush, but the previous volunteer taught our mother about leaving chunks of vegetables. On occasion we will have chunks of mushy vegetables instead of just completely mushed vegetables in the stews. Again, another surprising delight.

  

Breakfast Items: I never thought I’d be dreaming of cold cereal, but I alas, I have begun to. I did see a box of Corn Flakes in a store in town, but I’m scared to see how much they cost, and well, I’m not really a corn flakes fan. Exhibit A below on the left is a bag of coco. Coco is the morning porridge, and when purchased to go on the street, comes served in a bag as such. You bite off the corner and suck away. Eating from a bowl with a spoon is much more pleasant. Some people put ginger in their coco, which is actually quite good. I can barely finish 2000 worth of coco (20 pesewas, or approximately $0.16 CDN). On the right you’ll see a groundnut butter and honey sandwich. This is one of the breakfast staples in my house. When there are bananas, we’ll add them as well. I’ve even had a fried egg thrown in the sandwich from time to time (not super great, but protein, so I won’t complain). However, Sam, once he realized that I’ll usually only eat one sandwich (because it is quite often accompanied by a bowl of coco), started making mine bigger and bigger.

     

Exhibit C to the left is Sarah breaking her hard-boiled egg on the roof of the bus. Next to this is exhibit D, a little fuzzy, but it is egg and bread, which is essentially an omelet fried into bread. This is definitely the best breakfast Ghana has to offer.

Meat: I’m not a huge fan of eating meat here. Every little bit of an animal used, and so you don’t really know what you are eating. On the left is fried chicken. This chicken was one that was wandering around my yard in the morning, by mid afternoon she was chopped up in a bowl, and then in the evening she was sitting on that plate. And no, I did not take part in the butchering and plucking process. On the right below is a pig being smoked. Again, this pig was alive in the morning (although not in my yard), then smoked by Sam and his gang, and then wound up in my stew later that evening. There were a few pieces that I couldn’t recognize, and therefore didn’t touch, but then there were a few good pieces that were clearly just hunks of smoked pork that enjoyed more than I imagined, as they were my first pieces of meat in quite some time. When eating out, a lot of food vendors will have hard-boiled eggs available as a nice alternative to meat. One interesting note is that I’ve never heard the term beef used here, instead, they just refer to it as cow meat. Probably because it is quite literally just a random hunk of cow they are giving you.

  

Special Treats and Snacks: Italia, aka pasta, is a great treat to have here. Of course, it seems to be always served with rice, just in case a giant plate of pasta wasn’t enough for you to eat and absorb. The plate below was what was served to me for lunch. It was plenty (considering I’d be having a plate of something just that large for dinner), but it was delicious. You’ll notice there are even chunks of carrots in the pasta. Definitely a special treat! On the right is chocolate paste I discovered on my quest to find something sweet one afternoon. It is actually Brazilian Ducremo, so not the best chocolate treat one could have (I’m not a huge fan of Brazilian chocolate treats), but smeared over a digestive cookie, it was delicious. (Starting to feel the effects of chocolate deprivation one month in, good thing I’m coming home just in time for Christmas … hint, hint). The little round balls in the bottom right are, as far as I can tell, just dried or baked balls of ground nut paste and maybe some flour. They do resemble dried dog food in smell and texture, but soften up after being in your mouth for 20 seconds so you can chew through them. A store in town just started stocking Laughing Cow Cheese. The owner was very excited about it, and has made sure to tell all the Nansalas (whites) in town. I guess he knows how much we love our cheese. It is really cheap too, only 2 cedis!

 

 

Mangoes: Sadly, I arrived just at the end of the mango season, so I only got to enjoy a couple of mangoes while in Tamale. And yes, did I ever enjoy them. I think that I still prefer Pakistani mangoes, but Ghanaian mangoes come in a close second. If was here earlier in the season, and would have been able to pick them off the tree myself, they might have made it into first place. The Mango Tree also seems to be a very important part of Ghanaian culture. They grow in a way to provide perfect shade, and so, more often than not, there will be several benches under the mango trees and people just hanging out. In Bole, a particular mango grove is home to a moto repair shop that gets set up daily. Even during mango season, they are scarce in the Upper West due to problems with the Mango Stone Weevil and Fruit Flies. I’m not sure to what extent this is a problem elsewhere in Ghana. From the research posters I saw at work (They study fruit flies, I kid you not!), there are ways to combat and/or manage this, but as always in Africa, more resources are needed to actually do so. I’ve included snapshots of the research posters for you science folks.

     

  

Grocery Shopping:

 

Fruits and vegetables are purchased at the market. Bread, canned and boxed goods can be purchased from any number of small stores in town. Sometimes I think about the grocery stores in Canada, and even get a little misty eyed. We can get anything we want, in pretty much any season if we are willing to pay. I often wonder what a village Ghanaian would think if they were to enter Sobey’s or Loblaw’s. And as for me, I can’t wait to go grocery shopping in December.