(written July 10, 2010)

Intro to Ghanaian Foods

Now that I am in my 5th week here, I will make a novice attempt to describe the foods I have been eating here. I also need something to do, because it has been raining for the past 23 hours and I don’t want to go outside. Yeah, it’s into the heart of the rainy season here.

While it is possible to get some of the same raw ingredients as in the US – I fully plan to cook some of the same stuff I ate in the US once I get settled in at site – there are some differences in how they are prepared. First of all, with Ghanaian food preparation the goal is to have to chew as little as possible. In the US we are trained to chew our food thoroughly, so as to minimize choking. In Ghana the strategy is to prepare the food such that minimal chewing is required. Most Ghanaian staple dishes have two main parts; the starch and the sauce. The sauce is usually a soup, such as groundnut (peanut) soup or okra. You can also get stew that is thicker and may have more vegetables in it. Hot pepper is added to most soups/stews, as is meat (fish, beef, chicken, grass cutter and goat are all common – sometimes you get cow hide or some other mystery meat), so it is moderately spicy. The starch can be anything from yam to corn to rice to cassava. It is usually pounded or otherwise softened up to meet the minimal chewing requirement, then formed into a ball. Pounding fufu can take an hour, so there is significant preparation required. So you have your ball of starch and your soup. Place the starch ball(s) into a bowl and pour the soup over the top (don’t forget the mystery meat). Then, using your right hand only, reach into the piping hot soup, pull a piece off the starch ball, dip it thoroughly in the soup, and shovel it into your mouth. Repeat. If you are sharing a meal with others, keep in mind that the faster you eat the more you get. Continue until it is all gone, then take turns lifting the bowl to your lips and drinking the soup. Congratulations, you have just eaten fufu! For boiled yam (think: potato) the process is slightly different. The boiled yam is cut into half-moon shapes and then used to dip into stew (yam is usually not served with a more liquid-like soup). Banku is the ground corn version of fufu and is allowed to ferment, giving it a sour flavor – kind of like sourdough bread only more intense.

These foods are prepared at home or served from small kitchen-shops called “chop bars.” There is also the occasional restaurant where you can sit and eat. One thing that impresses me is that Ghanaians are very disciplined in washing hands before eating. In fact, hygiene in general is very impressive, especially given that much more effort is required. But that’s another blog post.

If you are eating in the midst of others it is common to say, “You are invited,” which basically means you are offering to share your food with others. This is mainly a formality, but if you were starving you could certainly join in.

So what have I been eating? While I am staying with my host mom I have been getting a lot of boiled yam and fish stew. The fish stew usually has tomato, and sometimes cabbage, 2 or 3 green beans, carrots, and other veggies. While veggies are expensive here, they are available, and if we ask our host families will buy them for us (they do get paid by PC, so it is not a completely charitable act). Sometimes I get rice balls with groundnut soup, though instead of eating it Ghana-style I eat it with a spoon, mainly because I don’t want to have a bunch of soup left over at the end (I am not yet good at maximizing the soup that absorbs into the starch before I shovel it into my mouth, so there is always plenty of soup remaining in the bowl). Today I got kenkey for the first time. It tastes like banku, very sour, but is shaped like boiled yam (half-moon or half-disc shape). I’m going to be honest – I didn’t love it. The rest of the time (40%)I get loose rice and soup/stew, which I happily consume completely. This balance of food has taken some time to develop – I give honest feedback on every meal, per Peace Corps’ suggestion. My host mom hosted a trainee in the group last year, and so she is familiar with the routine and hosts Tricia and I very well.

Now I will stop talking about food, because I just ate lunch an hour ago and I’m getting hungry already…