The one where I need nurishment

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I am seriously hungry right now, and have been for the past week. It’s a pretty viable assumption that I probably have a tropical parasite in my tummy eating all my food and giving me the runs. My friend had this problem while living in Mexico, and the local solution for her was to not eat for 2 days, to starve the little critters, and then drink vodka, to get them drunk and confused and kill them. It worked for her, so if my problem persists I’ll give it a go. In homage to my hunger, I would like to share all about Gambian food with you (partially because I want some, partially because it’s good).

For breakfast people eat a multitude of things. The local bread here is called Tapalapa (which I’m pretty sure has no quality controls and may have bits of sand and the bread makers boogers in it), but it’s good. Some people get it with just butter, or with boiled potato or egg, and you can always find ladies on the street selling things to put on the bread (like steamed fish or chicken). This is a staple all day long. Some people put bread or couscous in milk or coffee and eat it like that. I’ve heard that called Fufu, but I’ve also heard another type of food unrelated called Fufu, so I usually just call it chunky milk. I once ate this at my friend’s village, with couscous and milk fresh from the utter. I can’t say I really enjoyed it, but it was a nice gesture.

Lunch here is generally around 2 or 3, dinner around 8 or 9+. There are many local dishes that are eaten at both of these meals. Rice is a staple of Gambian cuisine, and so is Maggi or Jumbo (a salty bouillon cube type of thing). Yassa is awesome. It’s made with chicken, beef, or fish and has an oiniony sauce on it. There’s usually some bitter tomato, or potato, or garden egg (egg plant) thrown in there too. Also, palm oil is big here, people like to saturate their food in an oily goodness that is a sure fire way to keep the internal slides greased. Domada (one of my favorites) is a peanut stew served over rice. It is also made with fish, chicken or beef, although I most often see it with beef. Benechin (meaning one pot) is similar to Yassa. Pretty much anything you want to throw into the pot is fair game, and stuff is also mixed into the rice. Plassas is delightful. It’s a thick stew of sorts made out of cassava leafs and served over rice. Hydroconga is like Plassas but with okra. I’m not a huge okra fan because the sliminess weirds me out, so I tend to stay away from this dish. Ebe is a fish stew, not on rice. It’s spicy as all hell and usually makes me tear a little bit, but it’s beautiful pain. It has random bits of fish in it, including the eyes, and a lot of other things. It’s a tricky food to eat, because there are a lot of things in it you’re meant to spit out. Some people buy it on the street and suck it out of plastic bags. Chicken afra is interesting. I’ve never had it because I don’t eat meat, but they basically take a chicken, wack it up a bit, cook it, and serve it with chips. It’s pretty much random pieces of chicken. Virtually nothing has dairy in it, as it is scarce and expensive due to bad refrigeration and electricity. I sometimes dream of little bits of smoked Gouda dancing around in my head, I wish I was kidding about that.

Gambians eat in a communal style, out of one big bowl, and usually with their hands. It is a fine art eating with your hands. You have to master the “ball it up a little bit and then shove it in our mouth real fast” technique. If you are invited to come eat with someone, it is pretty rude to flat out say no. I usually take just a bite or two if I’m full and tell them it was nice. Nice, is a key survival word here. It is used more than good. “The food is nice”, “That shirt is nice”. Gambians are very prideful of their cuisine. Let me tell you, they push it on you all day everyday. I’ll walk into a random store and the shopkeeper will urge me to stay and eat with them. Now that I have shared culinary pleasures with you, I think I’m going to go stand over my stove for 4 hours and boil kidney beans.

Quote of the post:
“All I want is food and creative love”- Rusted Root

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