Wuna good aftanoon-oh,
How is everybody? I’ve been missing home very much lately, especially the food. Soo…if you’re in California, can you consume some extra In-N-Out, dim sum, carne asada fries, and tequila strawberry-blended margaritas for me? If you’re in DC, will you grub on some extra chili dogs from Ben’s Chili Bowl and Ray’s Hell Burger for me? I’ve been cooking and making meals from SCRATCH (yes, homemade food, and yeah, I haven’t given anyone food poisoning yet – miracle!), such as guacamole, burritos, chili, crepes, fried rice, fried noodles, minestrone, hash browns, stir-frys, key lime pie, steak dinner (including garlic sautéed green beans and baked potatoes – YUM) etc., and I can get most everything in Bamenda…but there are still certain items I crave.
Except I watched the documentary Food Inc. recently and I’m somewhat traumatized by all the hormones and artificial chemicals we inject into our bodies, either directly or through the chicken and beef we consume. Most of you know about this already, but check out the movie and it’ll have you running to the nearest farmer’s market. You’ll learn about the food industry and the big companies who control the products we consume at our grocery stores (no, this is not the hippie views in me…it’s real talk). Also, some books to check out are The Omnivore’s Dilemma and Skinny Bitch (but not if you have a weak stomach – it’s graphic).
Don’t remember if I’ve talked much about food in Cameroon. There are some people who don’t like food here, but I enjoy most of it, particularly in the Northwest where I live. Some of the traditional foods here are achu (made of a banana and taro paste with yellow soup in the middle), fufu corn and njama njama (which is cassava, a carb, and huckleberry leaves, tastes like spinach; this meal takes like grits and collard greens), pepe soup (pepper soup with chicken, fish, or goat meat), egussi with rice (peanut paste – arachide in French – verrrry yummy), koki (mashed baked beans wrapped in banana leaves; tastes like tamales), ndole (bitter leaf mixed with egussi), roasted (grilled) fish with plantains and/or bobolo (or baton de manioc in French…I really don’t like this), chicken kati-kati (usually eaten with fufu corn and njama), chicken DJ (amazing – prepared with tomatoes, carrots, and green bean sauce), jeloff rice (like fried rice without eggs). There are obviously more, but these are the most common and traditional. Besides the bobolo, these are actually my favorite dishes although it took me a few tries to enjoy achu since it’s so rich. Achu and fufu corn/njama njama are traditional specifically to the Northwest region, and it’s eaten with your hands like Ethiopian food. With the fufu corn, you take a little dough ball of it and wrap it around the njama njama. Achu is a little harder to explain…you use two fingers without breaking the soup. Everything is eaten with hot sauce, or “pepe” in Anglophone and “pimante” in Francophone, made of grinded peppers, garlic, oil…it’s delectable.
My apologies, I don’t usually like taking pictures of food but I’ll try to post some so you get a better understanding.
A delicious snack here is called soya (brochettes in French) – which are steak pieces on a stick like shish kebabs. There are grills at many bars around where they make soya. There is a local bar right next to my apartment and our soya guy makes THE best in the Northwest…no exaggeration (I’ve tried soya in the Extreme North, the North, the West, other parts of the Northwest and ours deserves the honors). He cuts the steak into thin pieces so it’s like flank steak and marinates them with crushed nuts so it’s crispy when he puts it on the grill. IT’S SOOOO GOOD. Imagine having steak all the time with large beers! It’s definitely one of my favorite pastimes in Cameroon. Friends, if you visit me in Bamenda, I’ll definitely show you some yummy cuisines.
Eating here is definitely more organic than in the States since I buy groceries from this lady’s store, in which her garden is right behind her house/store. I’m able to eat well, have a balanced diet plentiful of veggies and fruits, and meats. Oh, let me elaborate on fruits. Pineapples, watermelons, coconuts, papayas, bananas, oranges, and apples are available year-round (as well as avocadoes), and mangoes are in season now. I seriously lucked out on Bamenda, Cameroon – all I need to find is young, raw coconut (my #1 favorite fruit, tied with pineapple, watermelon, and mango) and I’ll be thoroughly satisfied.
Cameroonians are very proud of their food (as they should because it’s delicious). However, many are close-minded to trying new dishes. When I invite friends and colleagues over for dinner, they usually arrive with a skeptical attitude that they won’t like my meals. I had a gentleman ask me once, “Why didn’t you make fufu corn and njama njama? You don’t know how to make it?” (Actually, I love making njama njama and rice). I said, “Uh, I know how to make it. I just didn’t prepare it tonight because I wanted to make an American dish.” I remember during my stay with my host family, they would always make me omelets with a pound of palm oil each morning. One day, I was tired and wanted scrambled eggs. They were appalled to see me breaking up the eggs on the pan. I said, “RELAX. I am using the same exact ingredients (and way less palm oil)…just preparing this breakfast a different way.” They thought I was weird but I think one of my host sisters was intrigued thereafter.
It was amusing talking to one of my Cameroonian colleagues about food, the Executive Director of the child trafficking NGO I work with, GLOWA. He traveled to Tanzania a few months ago, and when he returned I asked him about the food there. He said it wasn’t very good – the fish was dry, there was no flavor…and there was hardly any pepe! “Now that I’ve traveled out of Cameroon, I understand trying food from somewhere else. I can’t believe you guys have to endure this coming from America to Cameroon!” I told him, “Well, you have nothing to worry about because the food here rocks!”
Yesssss…score one for cross-cultural exchange.
Updates on life:
Last Friday was a national holiday, the day of Cameroon’s reunification between the Anglophone and Francophone’s regions. Some Anglophones are still bitter about this because they feel marginalized as the minority (read previous posts since I discuss this a lot). Check the article:
http://cameroonwebnews.com/2011/05/18/cameroon-north-west-remembers-50-years-of-reunification/
Planning for the NGO Fair is going smoothly! I just submitted my Peace Corps Partnership Program proposal and will be waiting to hear back for approval in a few weeks. I will give you all more details about this project and would like your support. =)
In two weeks, I’ll have been in Cameroon for one year! I still remember when I was doing beaucoup de voyage around the States – Omaha, Vegas, Miami, and my going away party in Los Angeles – exactly one year ago before arriving here. I can’t believe how fast time has flown. The new set of Small Enterprise Development (SED) and Education trainees arrive in two weeks and they’ll do the three-month stage in Bafia. I can’t wait to meet them…I hear one is a SED volunteer from UCLA! Now we’ll have four Bruin alumni in Peace Corps Cameroon!
Ashia for the weekend!
P.S. I have been obsessed with Kanye West’s new album, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. This is the first time in a long while I’ve been excited for music. His film for “Runaway” is awesome. Check it.
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