African Food - Mystery Meals
Even though you are not likely to be offered most of these meals in a five star hotel or a resturant in down town Africa, these meals indeed are traditionally eaten in the countryside.
Snakes - In central Africa snakes and especially vipers which locals consider very tasty are eaten.
Gorillas and Monkeys - If you care to sample your closest relative then Guinea-Bissay is the place to be for a taste of monkey brain. Gorilla hands are also eaten in the Congo However eating your close relative is never a good idea from a conservation point of view and also if you care for your health. Monkeys have been known to transmit all kinds of diseases including ebola.
Cats and Dogs - One man’s pet is another man’s meal. Ghana’s Volta Region is the place to eat pussy (tastes like chicken) In Nigeria dog meat which is roasted like beef is also belived to improve your sex life.
In fact Nigerians have dog meat terminology
404: A dog is also called 404 after the French-built Peugeot pick-up van, a tribute to a dog’s ability to run fast.
Headlights: A dish with the eyes of a dog as the most prominent component
Gear Box: Dog’s liver, heart and kidneys (usually more expensive than ordinary meat)
Tyre: A dog’s legs. Some claim that eating a ‘tyre’ makes you a fast runner
Telephone: A dog’s tail
Sentencing: The act of clubbing a dog to death rather than slaughtering it.
Termites - In some parts of Kenya, cameroon, uganda and Malawi termites are a favourite especially during the rainy season when young boys and girls will often light kerosene lamps to attract winged termites which are then collected and either pan -fried or eaten alive with a little salt or chilli to taste and a bottle of beer to wash it down.
Locusts and Grasshoppers - The tought of eating locusts isn’t that bad when you think terrestrial prawns and they are quite tasty when fried in butter.
Rodents - There is a west African dish called akrante or “grasscutter” a giant size rat like creature. Its meat is particularly fine, but it’s the fur that is contained in it’s sauces and stews which make it an unforgettable dish. Further South there exists a fragile balance
between man and rodent where occasionally mice populations reach plague like numbers eating grain and local are left with nothing much to eat but the rats and mice. In Malawi and Mozambique you could be treated to barbecued mice.
Mopane worms - These giant grubs also known as macimbe are eaten in Zimbabwe and other parts of Southern Africa. Deep fry or roast then add a bit of salt to taste and you are good to go.
Bugs insects and Other crawlies - For fried beetles head to Zimbabwe hard on the outside gooey in the inside. cooked grubs and giant grilled rhinoceros beetles are eaten in Congo, butterful larve in Burkina Faso, and millipedes in Namibia.
- Africa’s great Cuisines
- Food and Wine Pairing
- African wildlife - Waterbuck
- African Recipe Green Peas and Coconut Rice
- Scavenging means free food
Healthy Living - 68 yr Old Sprints 100 meters in 12 sec
I was recently Inspired by the story of A 68 year old sprinter Sar Bakooriah who runs 100 metres in Under 12 seconds.
Reminds me of my grandma, in western Kenya who at about 68-70 years ( we actually don’t really know her age and we can only estimate using my Aunts age who is the first born in the family) goes to her farm at 5am in the morning till 11am before the sun gets too hot. Here diet, sweet potatoes, cassava, mushroom and vegetables that some would consider weeds because they grow in the wild.
These are not isolated cases in Africa, and even though Sar Bakooriah is not from my home area in Rural Africa, he is one of 3000 African Hebrew Israelites living at the foot of the Judean Hills in southern Israel and here too health stories are plentyful.
Men in their seventies lift weights in the gym. Weights that would put some younger people to shame. While 60 year grandmothers run 8km every morning.
These African Hebrews settled here almost 40 years ago and maintain a strict organic diet that excludes dairy products but includes lots of exercise daily.
About 40 yrs ago these people moved from the United States to start a better and healthier life which they felt they couldn’t because of fast foods and processed foods.
Prince Asiel Ben Israel, 65, himself lean and fit as a boy despite his age has this to say about dairy products. “If you feed your children cow’s milk, you shouldn’t be surprised when they become obese just like the cow. The milk of a cow is meant for calves to weigh three tonnes when they grow up.”
The strict vegetarian diet of the African Hebrews has borne fruit.
Since they settled in Dimona, no more than five of their members have died; and among those born in Israel, not one has died of natural causes.
Members of the African Hebrew Israelites Community members do not put chemicals in their hair Infant, child and maternal mortality are zero, a fact confirmed by health authorities there.
These African Hebrews are taking their lifestyle back to where they came from, by senting some of their members to Africa to work with communities in hopes of encouraging lifestyle changes in a continent that is influenced by western style fast foods and canned food on the shelves of supermarkets.
They have established an organic farm and an agriculture and nutrition school in Benin.
In Ghana there is a soya products factory, a vegetarian food outlet and a local-rice mill.
In South Africa, they have a nutrition project for people living with HIV.
Africa’s great Cuisines
September 21, 2007 by Jerry · Leave a Comment
When it comes to food and drink in Africa, african food is generally quite gentle of course the likes of snails and rodents in west africa, snakes in central africa,monkeys, cats and dogs eaten in Ghana, termites, or even locusts eaten in Uganda are exceptions.
You will often find foods like pizza, burgers (or at least attemps at pizzas and burgers) chicken and fries in most towns in Africa.
Should you want a taste of the local cuisine you will often find a lot and a variety depending on where you are in Africa.
By far the best known of Africa’s finest traditional dishes are Moroccan, Ethiopian and Swahili dishes. Morocco offers tajines, couscous (possibly getting its insipation from West Africa, where it’s traditionally steamed in baobab leaves), great tasting soups and scrumptious sweets. In East Africa and along the coast Swahili cooking rules supriem, making loving use of herds and spices introduced into Africa from Arabia, India and the Far East, with seafood being especially good.
Ethiopian cuisine is in a class of its own: injera as it is known is the staple and is a large pancake from which diners which they use to scoop up dollops of highly spiced stews.
Seafood is prepared differently in different regions. In Zanzibar it is prepared spicy, in coconut sauce or steffed with vegetables and cooked in tomato, in Senegal. In South Africa, Brits can truly feel at home with fish and chips off course minus the newspaper. In many parts of Africa especially in the countryside it’s best to eat fish close to the places where they are caught.
For the meat eaters or carnivores as they like to be called, Kenya’s carnivore restaurant in Nairobi is a great place to indulge. Here you can try game meat from impala steaks, hippo, ostrich to crocodile burgers which by the way taste either like fish or chicken depending on what the crocodiles which are often breed on crocodile farms were feed on.
In southern africa namely South Africa, Namibia and Botswana popular barbecues feature all kinds of meat and Boerwurst sausages which are often washed down with good beer.
In rural Kenya smoked wild birds are also a popular snack.
For vegetarians North African cuisines offer reasonable choices.
