Food Stuffs

Well I guess I let the ball drop…haven’t written in a while. I feel I finally have something worthwhile to share with y’all. Recently over the past few weeks I have had some yummy food encounters. I will start with the cooking session I did with my French Tutor’s wife. I found an amazing tutor who has worked closely with the Peace Corps over the past 9 years as a language facilitator. He is married with three adorable sons aged 8, 6, and 3. My tutor Abel and his wife Lucrѐce invited me to learn how to cook Pâte (pronounced pot) rouge which is a staple here in Benin. We picked a marché day to meet and get all the ingredients. Pâte is a mix between pudding and mashed potatoes, it’s hard to exactly describe the consistency but its made with corn flour and boiling water so it is similar to mashed potatoes. It thickens/hardens once it cools a bit and people eat it with different sauces. Pâte rouge is red and made with tomatoes, onions, and other spices not found in regular pâte. Most volunteers think that pâte rouge is the most tasteful, and my tutor Abel also prefers pâte rouge. So we walked around the marche for a while getting ginger, Maggie cubes, tomatoes, onions, bay leaves, piment (peppers) and a chicken for the protein!
In the marché you can buy corn flour or you can buy dried corn and take it to a machine to get processed into flour. Lucrѐce likes to buy corn and get flour made herself. The day before we were supposed to cook we prepped the chicken buy seasoning it and boiling it. One huge difference here is they ѐcraser (or crush ) all their vegetables and seasoning into a fine paste. They make it look super easy too but crushing the vegetables with a stone on another stone is not easy! So the next day we met at 14h and we cooked until 18:45! There was a lot of boiling ecrasing and cleaning things. To make Pâte rouge you ecraser tomatoes and make a basic tomato sauce then add corn flour and other seasonings, then let it boil for a good while then add more flour so it thickens up then add some chopped tomatoes and onions. Then for the sauce we added more crushed tomatoes and onions and seasons. Oh one important thing to add in the pâte is some chicken broth that was left from boiling the chickens.
So we cooked a little less than 5 hours and we ate the delicious meal in about 30 min!! It was definitely a fun experience and I plan on continuing this tradition over the next year. I am going to teach Lucrѐce how to make corn bread because she loves it and it super easy to make! I think I also want to teach her how to make tacos….with some guacamole and if I get more velveeta I could do some queso! Endless possibilities!
There are German volunteers that live in Natitingou as well. The German program is only for a year unlike Peace Corps. There are 2 new volunteers that just arrived in August. They came by and introduced themselves; Ana and Monika. We offered to cook them dinner and we made tacos. They had never eaten tacos before so it was entertaining to see them struggle a little with the tortillas! In return they offered to cook us dinner. Fortunately they speak some English so we manage just fine. It’s interesting to see what other volunteers cook and how they prepare the same dishes but they taste slightly different. We had couscous with green beans and tomatoes, cabbage salad, and wagashi (Fulani cheese that is kinda similar to ricotta cheese) They pan fried the cheese with peanuts and peppers and it was so delicious. I have pan friend the cheese before but never with peanuts and peppers so I was excited to try something I really like in a new way. I know it’s hard to imagine frying cheese without it melting and sticking to the pan but this cheese is not like that. It’s spongy. I’m excited to get to know these two girls, and hopefully have new German friends!
There is a local artist that lives in Natitingou but is originally from The Gambia. He learned English in school and also at one time was a museum curator in West Africa. I’m not exactly sure how he made his way to Benin but he is here. He paints the most amazing pictures. I have already purchased three paintings….he also makes jewelry and sells other things like masks and jewelry boxes. My post mates Jonny and Mary are going over land to Guinea for their COS trip and making their way through Gambia. In honor of them Joseph (the Artist) offered to cook us a traditional Gambian dinner. OH MY GOODNESS IT WAS AMAZING!! I don’t remember any of the names of dishes I just remember they were so delicious. He cooked beans with peppers that tasted so delicious. He also made sweet potato fries, and yam fries. There was a cabbage and green bean salad along with a traditional Gambian dishes that had sausage with onions and peppers . My ultimate favorite dish was this peanut sauce it is some sort of soup but it tastes like amazing peanut sauce for Thai food. Towards the end of the meal I just started pouring it all over my plate and covering everything in it!
Usually when I am on my own I make rice or pasta and add some sort of simple tomato sauce with maybe a few extra veggies in it. I want to continue to learn new Beninese dishes from Lucrѐce and Joseph told me that he would teach me the peanut sauce so I will keep you all updated on my progress! Man now I’m hungry…..