bra yen didi

This has to be one of my favorite phrases in Twi (well, and also one of the only ones I know…); it means come let’s eat. I wish there was a way for me to send you some Ghanaian dishes over the internet so you could try some of the yummy food I’ve been eating; but since there is not, I’m going to have to give you a tour of Ghanaian cuisine…

Banku with light soup (in the village that I visited some families eat banku every day)

In many ways, I find Ghanaian food to be quite similar to Guatemalan food. This is partly because Ghanaians grow many of the same crops: maize/corn, yams, plantain, tropical fruits, sugar cane, and peppers. But also because some of the cooking methods are similar, like mixing maize flour with water to form a sticky dough that you can use to eat with meat or other dishes. I’m happy to report that as a result of this my body has adapted well to the new food and I’m enjoying even the hot “pepe” that is sometimes way too hot. My favorite dish so far is kele wele or fried plantain with spices… and in fact every variation of plantain: boiled, made into balls, fried to make chips…it’s just so good!

Some fruit, bread, groundnuts and a sachet of water for breakfast

As a rule I would say that making local food requires a lot of energy. To make fufu you need to cook cassava, and sometimes plantain, until it is soft (usually on small stoves that use coal) and then pound it and mix it well until it becomes a soft sticky dough. At “chop bars” or small local restaurants, it’s common to see women pounding fufu over and over again so it is fresh when you buy it.

Pounding cassava to make fufu

Making banku is also quite the task. To make the cassava version, you first need to grind the cassava to make cassava dough usually using an engine of some sort. Then it is left to ferment and sold at the market in big plastic bags. Finally, you mix it with water and stir it on the fire until it acquires a thick consistency. The woman in the village who was teaching me how to stir banku couldn’t help laughing at my efforts when the dough got too sticky for me to mix, especially since the amount I was making won’t feed more than two people! Other foods like groundnuts or maize also need to be processed using a lot of energy (and therefore women’s time!) before you can eat them.


Stiring banku needs some muscle

Fufu and banku by themselves are rather bland, but they usually come with a soup or stew like palmnut soup or light soup that is pretty spicy and has big pieces of meat and tons of oil. In general, vegetarians have little options because most dishes have fish, goat or chicken. There are also the meats which I’m not adventurous enough to try like snails, cow skin and cow feet. Luckily, you can sometimes find “wachey” or rice and beans, and boiled eggs. Apart from trying to identify what kind of meat you are eating, the trickiest part of eating any Ghanaian dish is eating only with your right hand since using your left hand is simply not acceptable.

Eating fried rice out of a plastic bag (don’t tell my mom I got it from the street…)

Rice is also quite popular among Ghanaians. My favorite is jollof rice made by cooking the rice in a tomato-y stew. You can buy a meal of jollof rice and fried fish or chicken for two dollars or so. The interesting thing about rice is that most of it is imported even though rice is grown locally and local rice is more nutritious than foreign rice. Ghanaians are eating rice coming from Thailand, India, USA and anywhere but Ghana! Most people think that foreign brands are of higher quality based on the packaging and advertisement and since foreign rice is relatively cheap they have no incentive to consume what is locally produced. Other things like cookies and drinks are also coming from other places including India and China and very few food products are actually manufactured in Ghana. Some of our EWB volunteers are working on the “Eat Ghana Rice” campaign so if you want to know more about it check Sam’s blog on the side >>

mmm massively produced, nicely packaged, cheap, American rice!

Since some households don’t have a fridge or don’t have enough money to buy food in bulk, you can see plenty of little grocery stores spread all over the place. Things like powdered milk and tomato paste come in small packages that are enough for one meal only. Also, it seems like in the city at least, a lot of people eat out at chop bars or from little food stalls instead of cooking at home.


A little store

Sometimes it is easy to forget that people can go hungry in a country where portions are too large for me to eat alone and there always seems to be someone selling food around the corner. Especially in the village it was hard to know what the real situation regarding food was because as a visitor I didn’t get a chance to eat with the rest of the family. The food they gave me to eat was a lot and I doubt everyone in the family gets the same size of plate or that the situation is the same during the dry season when food is more scarce and prices are higher.


Snacks come to the tro-tro whenever it’s not moving

All this writing has made me really hungry so excuse me as I go eat a mango! I have to take advantage now that I’m here don’t you think?