Since I arrived a few days before everyone else, I have definitely had opportunities to try very authentic Ghanaian foods. The meals were so different and weird, that I decided I had to write to you guys about it.
I'm a pretty picky eater in the first place and I've been really good about trying new things while I've been here. The first morning here at the Alma house, we were served an omelette topped with peppers, tomatoes, and onions, and 4 pieces of toast with Cherry jam. Anyone who knows me knows I absolutely hate eggs, but I could not leave it all sitting on the plate. I broke off tiny pieces of the omelette and put it on my toast with cherry jam. I did my best to eat some of it, but I did end up leaving a lot on the plate. Plus 4 pieces of toast is a lot! I felt bad, but just thinking about eating eggs makes me nauseous. It's that bad.
I am currently at the Alma house again, and it is my third morning waking up in Africa. We had the same meal this morning, an omelet with toast and peppers n stuff, but instead of Cherry jam. We had Orange jam. I have never even heard of orange or cherry jam, so that was definitely interesting. And I have officially discovered that orange jam might be even more nauseating than eggs. After trying the jam, i ate the bread plain with a little bit of omelet.
For a snack that first day, professor Mackelprang bought Plantain chips, and they were absolutely delicious. I will have to buy some more and bring them home for everyone to try. They looked like long slices of bananas, but they were cooked in some way so they were more of a chip. It sounds weird, and I was skeptical to try them, but they were extremely delicious. I'd choose those over potato chips any day!
That first night, we went to a place called Linda-Dor which was basically a restaurant at a rest stop on the highway. I got chicken breast with jollof rice, which is a very traditional meal & It was pretty good. It sounded safe, so I got it, and it was good. But again, they served a lot! And I felt bad leaving it on the plate, but I was so full that I had to. Bad person Lexi.
Afasi, the man traveling with us, got a dish called Banku. After one look at it, I was definitely weirded out. It looked like a blob of mashed potatoes and some soup concoction with a giant fish head in it, and he ate it with his fingers. Turns out, the mashed potatoes was actually corn that was prepared some weird way, and you grab your corn with your fingers and dip it in the fish veggie soup stuff, and slurp it down your throat. No chewing. They told me to try it, so I did, and it was pretty weird. It wasn't that it was terribly bad tasting, it was just the weirdest thing i've ever seen or eaten. The tilapia head definitely freaked me out the most though, which he also ate.
The next day, for lunch, we stopped in a village, and I forget the name of it, but Afasi got some more banku, and ordered some for me and Professor Mackelprang. He only ordered me a little bit, so of course I had to eat it. Luckily, I did not have a fish head in mine, just a little piece of fish. It took me a while to get used to just swallowing the corn mush stuff because I kept wanting to chew it. And it was also pretty spicy. I probably ate less than half than I was given, but I tried this weird, authentic dish and I was pretty proud of myself (:
I regret not taking a picture of the food, but I found an image on google that looks similar to what I ate.
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| Banku |
That evening, Professor Mackelprang & I walked down the street from the Alma house to a restaurant that was also a Hookah bar. Basically all of the people there were wealthy Middle Eastern Muslims, which was odd to see when all I'd seen is a bunch of Africans. The outdoor restaraunt played American music, and I ordered a chicken burger and some french fries. I felt sort of guilty eating American food, but after my weird lunch of Banku, I was craving something familiar, so i wasn't feeling TOO guilty.
The rest of the trip I will be traveling with the group and we will be cooking a lot of our own meals, which will consist of a lot of peanut butter & jelly sandwiches (not orange jam hallelujah), spaghetti, and other familiar foods, but they won't taste the same as in America.
I am loving this experience of African cuisine, but I can't say i'm not excited to go home to some good, quality, home cooked American meals.
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