Spice Up Your Life with West African Entrees!

Beginning from Day 1 in Ghana, westernized cuisines were not to be seen until I hopped on the plane back to the U.S., 33 days later.  I had a bit of a rough start with my selection for meals in order for my taste buds to adjust with certain spices used, but I ended up finding delicious entrees/snacks! So, this blog will be about describing the journey through Ghana and Togo in the sense of food! {Luckily, I snapped a picture at almost every meal... and yes, sometimes my group did give me a hard time ;) }

Soup with red/green peppers and fish

For this meal, I wish I hard looked closely at this picture before I shoved a whole red pepper in my mouth. The description of the soup wasn't really to be found on the menu and my mind wasn't in the African setting for this first meal and it was pretty dark in the cabana restaurant called "Baku." I thought the red and green pieces were lettuce and tomato. Yes, I was miserable the rest of the evening since my mouth was on fire!

Banku: Sour Dough {you can chew this}

Banku came with the soup. You eat this with your fingers, tear it off and dip it in the soup. All it contains is sour dough rolled up in a ball. pretty bland taste, but it fills you up. The captions say "you can chew this," because there is a food called Fufu, that looks almost identical to Banku, but you are suppose to swallow the torn off pieces whole. {picture of Fufu soon to come}

Sugarcane for dessert!

Meat Pie: Meat with some type of onions, I'm guessing. Pretty tasty.

Squid Kabob with Yam fries and Lettuce

Squid and Veggie Pasta with a spicey, yet tolerable sauce

I enjoyed this pasta at an open-aired restaurant which overlooked the ocean at Cape Coast.

Fried plantains, lettuce, white rice, boned chicken and meatball

This was my least favorite meal of the entire trip. Fish Omelet.

 I had to explain to my host family that we normally do not eat fish in the mornings.

Fufu and goat soup. Fufu is very much like Banku, but you tear small pieces off, dip it in the soup and swallow. No chewing!

One of my favorite meals were Kenke with a scaled fish and red sauce. The Kenke reminded me most of the inside of a tamale. Tear off the Kenke and fish and dip it in the red sauce. {Notice the finger food trend...} 

This was a lovely meal prepared by a group of women at the Seventh Day Adventist Church in Kumasi.

Do you see a small dried fish? Then, yes, you are seeing correctly and this girl ate it all!

Casava with fish and sauce

This doesn't look much like a meal, but with a few servings, it was hard to stop! Black eyed peas with friend plantains! De-licious!

This picture makes my mouth water just looking at it. Fried plantains with black eyed peas, wild rice, chicken and a salad. So good!

Here are some snacks that were enjoyed from Togo {Notice the different languages on the labels?}

FanYogo!! a.k.a. Ice Cream!!!

Three flavors, chocolate, strawberry and vanilla were equally devoured throughout the trip... sometimes even twice-a-day while we were in Ghana. This treat is one that several of us miss that you don't see too often in the states, if even at all.

Palm Wine. This comes directly from Palm trees and poured into bottles, like so. 

If the liquid is not capped soon after it is drained, then the content of the alcohol strengthens.

If you care to try any West African entrees, I'm sure you can find particular recipes so you can experience what I did, as I would call it...happiness in your mouth! :)

Love.