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| Pate rouge (back) served with vegetables and fried cheese. Pate rouge is made with the standard pate (corn flour porridge) but has had tomato sauce mixed in. |
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| Igname pilee (featured in detail in an earlier post) with peanut oil sauce and fried cheese |
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| "African couscous". The little brown balls are made from igname that has been specially prepared to take this form. |
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| Beef skin |
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| Bouillie: porridge made from sorghum flour |
This food looks good enough to eat. :) I'm not so sure about beef skin. Sounds tough and maybe hairy. Are these things you are eating now or just in the monsoon season? How challenging has meal preparation been now that it is dry with fewer ingredients?
ReplyDeleteJean Ralley
The starches are available pretty much year-round. Igname is supposed to have a two-month period in the summer when you can't get it, but otherwise it is always available. Cheese and vegetables, on the other hand, are hard to find this time of year. The first two photos are of meals that we had during our December training in Parakou, hence the cheese and vegetables.
ReplyDeleteNow that it's dry season, sometimes it feels like I just eat rice and sauce every day. I personally don't cook at home anymore because there's no room in my stomach after I've been out in the village all day. I have learned which food offers I can decline and which ones I must accept, and the ones I accept are enough to keep me full. The shopkeeper in particular always offers food and gets upset when I try to decline.