When it comes to food, I’m sure I come across as hopelessly fussy to Sierra Leoneans. Being unwilling to eat meat or fish means I have to turn down most of the traditional dishes here. But I actually really like trying new foods, as long as they’re vegetarian.
One of the more unusual dishes I’ve tried here is “cake” deep-fried balls of dough served with spicy pepper paste. I was eating this dish the first time I tried “ginger beer,” and the whole time it felt like my mouth and throat had been set on fire in a good way, of course. Sierra Leonean ginger beer is made by boiling what must be piles of fresh ginger root in water with lots of sugar and a few cloves. The result is served cold and is refreshing and very gingery. I’ll definitely have to try making it when I return to Seattle.
One of my favorite snacks in Sierra Leone is plantain chips, which are sold in little plastic bags practically every 20 feet in Freetown. I’ve had plantain chips in the United States before, where they’re usually thicker and kind of chalky. Here in Sierra Leone the chips are thin and cut the long way, which makes them look prettier. They’re doused in plenty of salt, making them taste a lot like potato chips. I’ve tried making fried plantains in the kitchen of my hostel, with the advice of the staff there. When they’re crisp and sprinkled generously with salt, the plantains are sweet, starchy and a little savory there’s nothing quite like them.
The most unusual thing I’ve tried in Sierra Leone so far well, maybe besides the palm juice I wrote about in an earlier column — is kola nut. When one of my colleagues offered me one last week, everyone in the office watched me bite into it, curious what I’d think. The nut had a shell sort of like a peanut shell, and the nut inside was light green. The juice tasted incredibly bitter, and starchy. My colleague said it would make water taste sweet afterward, and sure enough when I took a sip of water it had a sweet aftertaste. My colleague described how farm workers in the provinces chew cola nuts starting early in the morning to give them energy throughout the day. Apparently, it’s good medicine for the stomach, can prevent some of the effects of malaria, and boosts male virility. It sure beats Coca Cola.
*Chetanya Robinson is a journalism intern from the University of Washington in Seattle. He is the 7th intern in as many years in an internship program with Awoko Newspaper
Friday August 12, 2016