The food of Ghana

What am I most excited to share with you about Ghana?
The Food!
Why? #1 It's easy to photograph (I don't have to worry about crossing anyone, except my mother-in-law, who tried to save the food from my camera, to no avail..). #2 I wanted to see the culture of Ghana, and food is very much a part of culture. #3 It's waaaay different than American food, and I wanted to see if you thing you could handle it :c)

So let's get to it!

This is a collage of foods we ate throughout the trip

1)Octopus. 2)Watermelon/Orange Hybrid. 3)They wouldn't tell me.. 4)Fried Yams and 'Salsa'
5)Fresh Peppers. 6)Plant leaves. 7)Fish. 8)Fresh Fruit! Pineapple, plantain, mango, and cocoa
9)Yes, they ate that carcass. 10)Dinner? 11)T-day dinner. 12)Plantain Chips, yumm
13)Water. 14) Roasted Plantain. 15) Sugar Cane. 16)The 'food processor'.

Here is a family friend cooking in the makeshift kitchen (we didn't get a gas stove until the 3rd day)

We also didn't get electricity until the 3rd day, but I thought this set up was just too beautiful!

Ghana Lesson 1: They don't use silverware (or a table for that fact)

So they eat soups and stews with their hands (Always the right hand though, the left hand is reserved for taking care of business when the food exits..)

Maybe this is why... (yes, that is the fish's backbone)

Ghana Lesson 2: Watch out if you're a chicken

You could end up in here (Yummy peanut butter chicken soup they made with 2 of the chickens- this one doesn't even realize how grateful he needs to be!)

Ghana Lesson 3: They mostly drink water from bags (which I actually like better than bottles)

This is the 'grocery store' we stopped at. We didn't even have to get out of the car! and how about all that fresh organic food!

The 'fast food' stop. I love roasted plantain and peanuts!

More 'fast food'- This time.. octopus (which was actually one of my favorites!)

Chicken and a biscuit you ask? Not quite. This is a grasscutter kabob (I ended up with the ribs and just couldn't eat it) and some kind of corn-thing.
Sidenote: I just googled it for the first time to get you a link, and am now totally grossed out. They told me it was a 'bush animal' and a delicacy... It's a rodent...blah..

Deep breath.... still trying to recover from the Greater Cane Rat (the official name for grasscutter) in the above picture.. and breath out. Okay, let's go.

Now we are at Thanksgiving dinner. I hope your turkey didn't look like these fish..

Ahh.. looks much better in the stew

This was my drink-all their 'juices' were thick and yummy

And the complete meal (I think it's my first Thanksgiving meal where you can actually see part of the plate/bowl :c)

Mango Man

Sugar Cane Kid

Orange-opinator (Give me a break-O's are tough!)

Sidenote: Ghana Lesson 4: They peel oranges and eat a mango without a knife. And laugh at you when you want to reverse the above. But I did get to finally have a fresh Ghanaian mango! (Ray complains the ones here aren't as fresh as when he was young and picked them off the trees..)

Attack that orange!

And for the grand finale.. How to make FuFu.
Fufu is a favorite among the Ghanaians, it is a mix of plantains and yams and is served with their soups and stews. And just in case you were wanting to make some, I documented the process!
First you must cut and wash the ingredients.

Then boil

Ghana Lesson 5: Mothers will yell at you for taking the lid off things boiling on the stove, no matter what continent you're on..

Back to fufu. Next, drain ingredients

Gather supplies

and ingredients

Then bring a smile and some muscles, because the fun is just about to begin :c)

Each piece must be pounded

It's hard work, even for the 'fufu' foreman in the back

Look at that concentration

Teamwork is key

so that no one looses a finger-

What's that American doing back there?

mocking the people who are making his dinner?

Tada... Fufu!



Aside from the crunchy fish in collage picutre 9, I ate most of what they served. I enjoyed getting all the fresh food and fruit, I can see why they eat so much of what they do (Ghana is coastal and tropical). But by the end of the trip, I was really craving some American food (or Italian or Mexican or whatever it is we eat over here). I did get to have Chinese takeout that tasted fabulous halfway through the trip. But the thing I missed the most, was a bowl of cereal. They have cereal there, but since the generator was not left on all the time (meaning the fridge didn't stay on around the clock), I was scared to buy milk. It's amazing how most of their food doesn't need refrigerated, even the fish! (Picture 7 is a shot I took when walking through the kitchen in the middle of the day, it made me nervous to see meat just sitting out, but I think they know what they are doing.. and I never got too sick like most people do when they travel abroad, so they were certainly doing something right!). And nothing was premade, boxed, or frozen, so I really appreciate all the effort they put into cooking our food!

There you have it. The food of Ghana. I will share more about our trip and the culture later..
I hope you didn't read this during your lunch break ;c)