Excitement stewed with trepidation, and a side of kelewele
I love food.
I unfortunately do not find time to eat enough of it during the school year but Sean, Sarah, Michael, and I are more than making up for that fact this summer as we cook in the little Blair kitchen just down the hall from my summer housing. Between the four of us, we have managed to not go hungry yet. In fact, we have quite enjoyed the dishes made so far, which have ranged from Apricot Ginger Glazed Salmon with home-made mashed potatoes and broccoli to hand-made beef and vegetable dumplings. Tonight, Michael, Sean, and I made authentic mushu with spicy and sour shredded potatoes and scrambled eggs with scallions (Sarah is in Chile!). Well, as authentic as we can get it, in any case. What with kosher rules and creative substitutions to keep things gluten-free (ahhh, if only I had a peanut or berry allergy; then our dietary restrictions would be complete!), we used chicken instead of pork and corn tortillas instead of home-made bing. Regardless, it turned out quite delicious, though it ended up being more of a salad than a Chinese version of the burrito, since the tortillas were on the small side.
All of this cooking has gotten me wondering about Ghanaian cuisine. After a consultation with the every trusty Wikipedia, I have determined that I can look forward to a plethora of rice, beans, and a bounty of starchy foods such as plantains, cassava, and bananas. Ghanaian food is also apparently full of spices, which is exciting. They use lots of ginger and garlic… mmmm!
GhanaWeb also has an excellent description of Ghanaian food, including a recipe for kelewele, a very populat side dish that is “A delicacy prepared from ripe plantain well seasoned with Ginger, chilli, cloves and fried in hot oil to give it a peculiar mouth-watering flavour.”
While we are in Ghana, the team and I will be cooking our own food or eating with our hosts (church elders) or eating at reputable restaurants with satisfactory sanitation ratings. I am looking forward to it!
Blair cafe!
Hmm, this food is too complicated for me. I wouldn’t bother unless other people were eating, too.
Plantains, they eat those in CR like crazy and are called platanos (which I swear we orginally learned that word as banana in spanish). Don’t eat them with cheese is my only recommendation. I prefer them fried.