Spice of Life in Ghana

I've just been eating so much good food here and I'm pretty much only friends with people who are equally as in love with food as I am, so I'm going to devote this post entirely to food here.

I'll start with why food is so on my mind right now. I just ate lunch at Aunty Munni's which is a little spot on the side of the road (a chop shop I think?). It consists of five long picnic tables on gravel, and a little shack where there are bowls of food--waakye (beans and rice boiled together), noodles, gari (granular flour made of cassava root), plantains, different kinds of meat and sauces, and hard boiled eggs. You wait in line and then order how much waakye you want and add as much of the other ingredients as you'd like. If you eat there, it's served in one large bowl for everyone in your party who's eating. It's under an awning so you're in the shade and can appreciate the warm weather, instead of being scorched by the sun (which, after walking there in the sun, it's pretty easy to appreciate). It's really, really spicy and delicious, but also so filling that I could barely walk home and still feel like I'm about to pop. Totally worth it, though.

While on the topic of somewhat non-established but completely delicious food joints, there's a pizza place called Pizza Roof pretty much around the corner from us. It's this open space that's vacant during the day but in the evening they set up plastic tables and chairs, bring a portable oven and have a light up sign that says PIZZA. They grate the cheese, chop the tomatoes and make it all right there so it's fresh and delicious, not to mention cheap and homey. It's right across the street from one of the bars around here, too.

Another local place that's good for lunch during the week is called Didipa. I actually had a dream last night about the name, and why it's named that. Anyway, they have delicious fufu in groundnut soup. Fufu can be made from cassava, plantains or yams--any starchy root. It's boiled and then pounded into a thick, pastey dough (we made it at my home stay). It's served in soup but so far my favorite soup I've had it with is groundnut. Groundnuts are peanuts and the soup is very spicy. Didipa also has really delicious jollof rice with chicken and red red.
Jollof and Red red are also served at Ashesi's campus, which is cheap and delicious, as well. Jollof is spiced rice, spiced with tomatoes and other spices. It's pretty simple but also pretty tastey. Red Red is made from black eyed peas with red palm oil and red pepper, and is usually served with plantains.

The chicken here is to die for. Everywhere you get chicken, you will not be disappointed. The beach we go to most often, Tawala, has the best chicken. It's perfectly grilled, tender and spiced. It comes with perfect fries or fried rice and an amazing green, spicy sauce. And hey, you can't really beat a beautiful beach setting and a cold beer at sunset.

Perhaps most notably, the fruit here is incredible. Outstanding. The pineapple is so sweet and juicy, the avocados are perfect, the mangos and papayas are great, the oranges are refreshing. I haven't enjoyed a banana in years until this trip. The juices, of course, are just as fresh, pure and perfect.

One of my closest friends here says she's never met a food she hasn't liked and I think that logic is wearing off on me. I love pretty much everything I eat here (except I still won't eat seafood). The places we have our meal plans at are hardly worth mentioning. One is pretty good and traditional food but the actual dinners there are long and chaotic. The other place has subpar quality food but it's got variety that's more familiar to our New York diets (menus ranging from Mexican to Indian to Chinese and American) and the atmosphere is more conducive to a relaxing meal and conversation with your friends.