Fufu is gross and other thoughts on food

My taste buds are confused about this country, I am not sure I have ever traveled to a place with food that evoked a wider variety of reactions from my mouth. Anyone that knows me knows I am an adventurous eater, brain? Insects? Sure! I will try anything once or twice. My first few days I was not very hungry just being hot and tired but my first meal made me nervous about my future meals while here. Banku, a super sticky corn and casava starch ball and fish stew. Most Ghanaian food is eaten with hands, grab a ball of sticky starch, banku or fufu, and dip in the red oily sauce that is more like a soup that has some sort of meat, often fish. It was a whole fish, no problem, I can eat fish with heads and tails, but this whole fish was also inches deep in a soup and what not cleaned much at all, lots of scales, fatty layers of skin, unidentifiable internal organ like things, gills maybe? The flavor was good but could really only get 3-4 bites that did not need half spit out for bones and other things I just could not swallow. The banku texture was ok, but it tasted sour, fermented or somehow turned bad.

Too much pepper powder first red meat here and a nice cider to wash it down

Not off to a great start but the next day I ate two meals, both very tasty. Red Red, a bean dish with lots of nice flavors, often served with fried plantains mixed in at the headmistresses house was delicious. Dinner at the hotel little restaurant was totally decent fried chicken and rich with a really good thick red sauce I later found out is made with ground up, dried mackerel (everything in Kpandu and TorKor has some type of fish being so close to Lake Volta)

Mixed experiences with street food as well:

• ok fried dough balls
• inedible meat pies but good hard-boiled egg pie
• very nice and fluffy breads
• mild but filling tamale-like packets of corn-mush in leaf wrappers
• delicious meat on a stick
• ok grilled plantains, very good grilled corn

By far the best thing I have eaten has been the fruit. Today I had the best pineapple ever, a while pineapple from the Ho market, and the most flavorful banana ever. Eating bananas ripe off the tree is just like a different fruit than the Chiquitas at the Jewel.

Patricia eating white pineapple in Ho market

I am really excited to be moving to a place with a kitchen where I can start experimenting with cooking, hopefully with some students willing to come hang out and teach me some cooking. The markets, held about every 5 days in most towns and villages, are filled with things I just do not even know what they are, and others like these delicious smelling little red tomatoes I am looking forward to playing with. Next blog will be about the quest to find the best prices and stuff to basically furnish an empty apartment here. I have more experimenting with the available beers and spirits as well, but so far the best beverages have been interesting sodas, passion fruit and spicy ginger beers have been delicious.

Last nights smorgasbord dinner

Today I ate at a chop, somewhere in between street food and a restaurant, and it was my first time experiencing fufu. I felt so terrible because after the man ahead of me heard the price, he decided to put back the little piece of meat in his stew and just get sauce with his fufu. I left almost all of my bowl there. The sauce was super spicy, the chunk of beef mostly tendon and tough bits, and the fufu, I really thought I would be fine with a raw-dough like substance, but this was like eating elementary school paste. It was sticking to my throat as I tried to at least make a dent in the glob so as to not insult them.

I am going to try to find a balance of embracing the local foods that I can, while still allowing myself to occasionally pay a ridiculous amount of money for special treats. Food, like many things is very cheap here and you can get a full meal for 2-3 Cedis (1 USD = 2 Cedis) But I will probably pay the 10 Cedis (5 USD) for cheddar or a box of cereal after meals of 2 Cedi food that I just can not make it through. And who knows what I will be thinking after the first, inevitable, food-induced sickness.

Corn packet thing

Lessons learned:

Rice before banku, banku before fufu

Expect very little meat even when you order meat

Never turn down something being fried on a charcoal pit when you pass by

The color red does not indicate the level of spicy, do not throw a whole chink of meat covered in cayenne straight into your mouth

List of my favorite things in Ghana Week One

Day 1. Being in the middle of a purchase, in the middle of the highway between driver and electric-device hawker.

Day 2. Freaking adorable mini goats, and their tiny little baby goats everywhere

Day 3. Watching the Ghanaian version of The Bachelor and talking with three amazing women, two daughters and their mom.

Day 4. First tro tro trip, not my favorite 1.5 hours but a staple of transportation here and everyone has their best “One time, on a tro tro...” story.

Day 5. Group reading with 4 students in Ho a Fraggle Rock book. Who knew Dozzers would make an appearance in Ghana.

Day 6. Exhausting but great 3 hours in massive Ho market day with Patricia. Ex-nun, ex-Bostonian, Ghana local, totally amazing woman to watch interacting with vendors, kids, and everyone we encountered.

Day 7. Getting help from several random strangers to carry all my crap 3 different times, just to be nice. And a very good local beer, Castle milk stout.