Food, Glorious Food

• 

“Food, Glorious food…what’s next is the question.” These words from the musical Oliver, rang through my head throughout my sojourn in Ghana. Prior to arriving I had zero expectations of Ghana being a Foodie Paradise. Shame on me for having such low expectations. Accra offers an array of cuisines, from the traditional to what I like to refer to as “nouveau global.” So come along as ThatTravelingBlackGirl highlights some of her favorite dishes.

• 

• 

• 

• 

My favorite dish of the entire trip was …Palava Sauce. More of a stew than a sauce, this tantalize your tastebuds dish contains spinach, fish, beef hide (uh, yup), cassava, and I don’t know what else. It is absolutely delicious. It hits everyone of your tastebuds forcing you to scarf down every bit. Alongside this tasty dish I had the pleasure of sampling the aptly named “One Mouth, Thousands,” a dish of thousands of tiny roasted fish that can only be caught in the Lake Volta region. Salty and crunchy, they would make a lovely substitute for potato chips. I enjoyed this meal at the Akosombo Bar located at the A & C Mall in the East Legon neighborhood of Accra. Their buffet of regional dishes will allow you to take a culinary journey throughout the country in one sitting. Yummo.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

The Villa Monticello was home base during my two weeks in Ghana. As is fitting a luxury hotel, they have a world class chef, Chef Ruby Paintsil, who pushes the boundaries with her “ethnic twist and fusion flair”. I had the distinct honor of tasting the magic she creates at a dinner party held at the hotel. I can comfortably state that her cuisine places her in the top echelon of chefs globally. It is just a matter of time before Chef Ruby earns a star. As you can see above, I enjoyed her mushroom cappuccino, light goat soup, luxury lobster, and…chocoholics rejoice…black and gold dessert made of edible gold. Yes, I truly ate like a Queen.

My cravings for traditional food were satisfied with a trip to The Living Room. I hesitate to refer to traditional food as a culture’s “authentic” food because that leaves the impression that food culture is frozen in time, ignoring that food culture is always on the move, shifting, bending and weaving through encounters, climate shifts and invention. With that said it was agreed by my Ghanaian hosts and friends that there were certain dishes not to be missed. These included Fufu, a dough-like ball made from pounded plantain and cassava, often used as an eating utensil; Red-Red, a stewed bean dish served with fried plantain; and peanut butter soup. Earlier in the week I made note (okay, I screamed in terror) of young men standing along the country roads holding the largest rats this New Yorker had ever laid eyes on. As the driver laughed and tried not to wreck the car, he explained that what these kids were offering for sale was Grass Cutter a local delicacy. Imagine my surprise after I devoured my peanut butter soup when the host asked if I had enjoyed my grass cutter! What??? Yup, they snuck it in, adding it to the chicken, without telling me. So you may be wondering, what does it taste like? Well, chicken. Ha Ha, actually that is not true. It has a distinctive taste similar to mild game. It was a fun experiment, but I will be okay if I never have it again. If you are curious as to what it looks like, please refer to Google.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

The traditional way to eat traditional food is when it is prepared for you in someone’s home. It is considered an honor to feed a guest and often you will eat first, even before the others receive their food. So after watching the homeowner and her kitchen helper pounding my fufu (there needs to be an Olympic event in Fufu pounding) I sat down to a lovely lunch of fish with red sauce, plantain, and fufu with seafood. I learned that the proper way to eat in Ghana is with your right hand, yah, it is tough for lefties. After breaking off a piece of fufu, you flatten out the middle such that it resembles a spoon. You then scoop and slurp. By the way, fufu tastes different depending on the region.

• 

• 

Like other global cities , Accra has a bountiful selection of global restaurants including Chinese, sushi, and coffee cafes. These were among my favorite…

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

And what is summer without a cookout? A great time was had by all at this gathering of Yalies. Yes, this Dartmouth girl decided to grace these bulldogs with her presence (ha ha ha ). The prawns were huge and the jollof rice, a Ghanaian national treasure, was off the chain.

• 

• 

• 

Skybar 25 is your place for outstanding nouveau global cuisine and killer views. Located on the roof of the tallest building in Accra, the atmosphere shifts as the sun moves across the sky (ok technically the earth is rotating and the sun is still). During my two visits, Chef Kess Eshun, http://www.kesskravings.com, from Dallas, Tx brought her A game as the guest chef. While my friends went bonkers over the deconstructed steak salad, I was positively gleeful about my Surf-N-Surf seafood kebabs. The seasoning on my salmon, lobster, octopus and red snapper brought out the flavor balance of each in sublime ways. Other wonderful dishes included chicken lollypops with Thai peanut sauce, coconut rice stuffed chicken wings, hanger steak, and the ridiculously lovely passionfruit soufflé.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Folks who know ThatTravelingBlackGirl, knows she is a tea fanatic. A lovely tea service can be had at the Kempinski Hotel. In addition to lovely tea and cookies, the booths are a modern twist on a traditional hut and offers an opportunity to be a world away in the midst of a crowd.

• 

• 

• 

So my foodies, get thee to Ghana for culinary surprises and delights. Oh and be sure to grab a bag of Tigernuts from the street vendors. The milk of these nuts – wow, just wow.