What do you eat in a typical day? Have you eaten anything really strange (to us) yet?
Usually I don't have breakfast, but when I do it's either oatmeal or little fried balls of dough ("gateaux" - it means cakes, but it's not exactly sweet). For lunch my concession sister, Lucy, sells rice, sometimes cous-cous, and dish called pate rouge. I'm not sure if i've written about pate yet, but it's cornmeal and water boiled together to form a galatinous carb-y substance. Regular pate isn't my favorite dish, but pate rouge (red pate) is when they add tomato sauce to it - and that's delish! And for dinner, I usually have eggs and ketchup - or egg, tomato, and onion omlette on bread with mayo. OR I make pasta. My specialty is mac and cheese made with tomato and onion and "Laughing Cow" cheese (they sell it in bigger cities like Parakou! - and it's called "Le vache qui rit") and a little bit of mac and cheese powder. The only veggies I can get in village right now are tomatoes, onions, and little green eggplants. The fruits are bananas (on the brink of spoiling) and oranges.
Have you had goat yet?
My favorite eating days are THURSDAYS! And that's because it's marche day. And when the market is in town, I treat myself to "Street meat" and my choices are between a whole chicken ($3) and like a handful of "mouton" (sheep) for $1. *(Which they just call "viande" = meat. I wasn't sure if it was sheep or goat, but I did some investigation, i.e. looked at the skin of the animal laying next to the fire pit and discovered that it is, in fact, sheep.)*. So technically I haven't eaten goat yet, but I have a tough time walking past the man selling sheep and not getting a little taste! You can pick up just like 3 or 4 pieces of meat for about $0.20USD. The $3 chickens are amazing and involve a little more commitment than the mouton man, but the chicken in Kalale is honest to God like Publix rotisserie. It's NOT that good everywhere - it's actually usually pretty dry and not much meat. And the sheep usually has a lot of fat and bone - but not in Kalale. It's almost all quality meat. I'm so lucky to be in a place with such healthy animals! :)
Sorry I haven't seen any cool animals, Katie. Your pictures were totally awesome though! I'm jealous! Hopefully I'll be able to see something cool before I'm done over here.
Katie and I thought it was funny that we just had Publix rotisserie chicken for dinner last night.
ReplyDeleteTonight we were watching a National Geographic series on Africa and Katie wanted to know what kind of house you live in. We saw some people living in the city who lived in apartment buildings and some who lived in grass and mud huts with dirt floors. So we were wondering what your home in Kalale was like.
Liking your blog! I love reading about our Kalale. It makes me miss it so much. There is cabri around, just look for the cabri head. You haven't tried it yet? I always would avoid the sheep, and got for the cabri/goat. I actually don't like Kalale's mutton as much as say Burkina Faso's. But I loved the meat men, my best friend and I would eat the meat whenever it struck our fancy, not just marche days. :) I here Valet, my barber best friend, has talked with you. I can't wait to do the same! Love and care until!
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