Food Stuff

I may have been too harsh on Beninese food.


I think last time I posted, I’d eaten fish, bread, and tomato/onion sauce twice a day every day for two weeks. Beninese food is not actually as awful as I made it sound – it’s very, very carb-heavy, but it’s also entirely possible to avoid fish and bread for a whole week if you want to. Plus, there are some fairly awesome foods here. Five important points (I’ll probably expand on some of these later):


1. It’s actually possible to get protein sans fish! You can get meat and chicken (both of which are generally tough and very lean), but there are also a bajillion different bean ladies around, plus peanuts and even Beninese soy cheese. I will survive this country’s nutrition issues, and I will do so without frying fish every day.


2. There is actually dairy here. No gallons of milk or anything like that, but you can get milk powder and sweetened condensed milk, butter (expensive), wagasi (weird tofu-like cheese from the north of Benin), and Laughing Cow cheese. I have no idea why they choose to import so much Laughing Cow (Vache qui Rit), but I am sooo thankful that they do.


3. Ignam pilee. I haven’t had this yet, but all of the PCVs drool at the mention of it. It’s a northern specialty, I think. You take ignams (like big potatoes), boil them, mash them by hand using a giant pounder (women do this in groups of three with chants to keep them on rhythm – YouTube it), and then top it all off with a peanut sauce. I can’t wait to try it.


4. Fresh fruit. I have never had pineapples so sweet as they are here – you buy a whole one on the street for 100 CFA (20 cents USD), and the lady cuts it up into bite-sized chunks in front of you. Papayas are here, too, and I can’t wait for mango season.


5. They have fried plantains (my current favorite African food). There’s a place near model school where I can get a big plate full of rice, beans, spicy piment sauce, and fried plantains for 300 CFA (around 60 cents). That’s what I’ve eaten every day for 3 weeks, and I’m not even a little tired of it.