The number one question we are asked by friends and family
at home is what do you eat. This is a funny question to us because really we
eat very boring foods and often the same thing again and again. It’s not as
exotic as you are thinking, I promise. That said, we have eaten some strange
things or at least tried them, but they aren’t on our everyday diet.
So, here I am with our list of weird things we have eaten
and our list of ordinary things that we eat and maybe a little insight as to
how everyday cooking goes down.
First, my kitchen is outside. We literally live in three
rooms and none of them are food designated areas. We do have a great hut that
we use for our school area and dining area. So eating is done off the ground. I
do not have my children eating in the dirt, promise.
We have a small two burner gas stove top, like you use when
you are camping. It is really handy for quick heat ups like boiling water, etc.
But we mostly rely on our coal pots. They are metal containers with a clay
inside that we put charcoal into and cook over an open fire. Our life has best
been described as an extended camping trip. I think this especially applies to
cooking time. I like to bake, so we devised a way to use a big pot that we
bought here to bake certain items. First, let me say these giant aluminum pots
are melted down engine blocks….got that mental picture? I fill the coal pot and
light it, then when it is good and hot, I put the item to be baked into the
giant pot and put some of the hot coals on the inverted lid. It kind of has a
dutch oven effect. Now, there is no temperature control so a timer isn’t
really reliable. I have to work off smell here and pray that the smell isn’t of
burning food!
We bake chicken or fry chicken, we can even make pizza and
breads. We can sometimes get potatoes and we love to bake those or fry them up.
We can’t get vegetables very often except for the local potato leaf or cassava
leaf. These have to be cooked, they aren’t like salads. They aren’t bad but you
can only eat them so many times a week. I try to buy a large amount of carrots
and green beans when we go to Freetown and I steam them and freeze them for use
throughout the month. So, with limited ingredients, we have become quite
creative!
A few days per week we eat local dishes. They are not bad,
just repetitive. Every dish contains onion, tomato paste, local hot peppers,
oil and some leaf or vegetable all served over rice. Our favorites include
blackeyed bench (blackeyed peas cooked with all the above ingredients). We also
love groundnut soup (peanuts ground super fine with above ingredients added)
and we like punky stew (pumpkin with…you get the picture, right?). We like
these but only so much!
We eat 2 meals per day because, well, can you imagine firing
up a coal pot everytime you want a snack? We have oatmeal 5 mornings a week and
Saturday and Sunday we live it up with pancakes and the big treat of bacon and
eggs. I am hungry on this Monday morning just thinking about it! We eat
whatever fruit is in season around lunchtime for a snack then have an earlier
dinner. Yes, we have all thinned out, but we aren’t hungry as much during the
day either because we are just so busy. I am starting to question the validity
of the five meals a day being best. Africa: the ultimate diet!
We can’t get bread here very easily. So we may have it a few
times per month. We also longingly remember milk, a commodity completely
unavailable here. So pop open that red or blue top for us tonight. We plan to
drink it by the gallons when our feet hit the ground! Cheese is expensive here,
we enjoy each bite. Cereal isn’t something we get very often because at $10.00
a box…who could buy cereal? Crazy, right?
I really love good food. It is something I think about and
dream about. It has been kind of fun coming up with new recipes that require
minimum ingredients and also interesting to use ingredients I never really
found or used in the states. Curry is a fun new favorite as well as eggplant in
everything, lentils in a lot of things and the use of frozen peas as a good
filler. That said, if you have any ideas leave a recipe! We would love to add
to our repertoire!
Now, weird things we have eaten…
We have purchased and butchered ourselves a couple of goats
now. I really like goat meat. But I have a new appreciation for the phrase
“tough old goat”, it’s not a compliment, at all! Goat, isn’t that strange but
I’m easing you into this.
We have also purchased and butchered in our backyard a
couple of pigs. Our favorite experience in this is when our Christian friend
Mohamed and our Muslim friend Moses killed and gutted one on an old door in the
backyard. Think about it, you will see the irony there.
We had a really nice pepper soup with porcupine one night.
We purchased a giant porcupine like you see at the zoo and ate it. Not too bad
but a little chewy. And I was a bit freaked out when someone cut off it’s tail
to let the baby use it as a rattle. Too far, too far.
We have had several Freetown Bo’s for dinner and this is our
favorite bushmeat by far. However, sad, cause they are cute little tiny dear.
We did it. We have eaten monkey. Sorry. It was good…real
good. Then someone handed me a piece of meat and I put it’s little cooked hand
in my mouth and now I have sworn off monkey eating. Those little faces and
hands are too much! But, it was good.
Pumba, was also delicious. For those who do not understand
my Disney reference, a little warthog is a good thing.
Giant snail. This I am not sure I would recommend, but you
should try everything once, right?
Number one, hands down, strange thing we have
eaten…termites. A little like nutty popcorn, we like them. But you have to get
over the fact that there is a bug in your mouth.
We still have a few things on our “to try” list but we are
working our way through! I think giant rat and snake are still to be consumed.
Not sure those are going to be for me! The kids are total troopers and try
everything. We’ve been totally surprised by what we have liked and they can say
they have eaten these cool things! They, as I have said before, are pretty much
the coolest.
So, to all those grandparents, aunts and uncles who are concerned
about our food intake, as you can see we are surviving just fine. Our diets are
different but we are pretty good about taking our vitamins to make up for any
lost nutrition. And overall, I would say we have gained a lot in the way of
cutting out processed or nonessentials in our diets. That said, feel free to
send chocolate. I could really go for a reeses!!
