Nutmeg. Forget about it! Two food
items that I searched and searched for were Nutmeg and Celery. Never found nutmeg (or anyone who remotely
knew what it was) but I did find celery… not celery stalks, but celery leaves. Very tender leaves and give me the celery flavor I needed.
Meat, vegetables and fruits are
usually purchased in open markets, but supermarkets sell dry and canned goods.
Local livestock includes chickens, guinea
fowl, ducks and goats. Fresh fish are
plentiful and is dried, smoked, deep fried (whole) and grilled. Hunters sell “bush meat”, which is also
usually smoked and dried; this might be antelope, grasscutter (groundhog),
porcupine, or other wild animal.
Because chickens are not grain
fed and are physically active, the meat is very tough. You have to be creative in breaking down the
tissues until they are tender enough to digest.
I braised a chicken and baked it for over 2 hours, before it was
edible. Not very tender by our standards,
but everyone enjoyed it.
Staple is Yam – not what we know
as sweet potatoes. I attempted to
prepare candied yams and ended up with a pot of candied starch, suitable for
scrapbooking paste but definitely not eating! They
are a large tuber with a thick bark that must be removed with a knife; several
varieties of yam are available in Benin . Cassava is also a staple. Both can be prepared in various ways,
including a dried powder which is soaked in water, combined with hot water and
whipped up into a fluffy form, or with its starch extracted. Starch is particularly popular in Benin . Rice is not native to Benin , but it
is one of the most popular staples available.
Vegetables include water leaf (efo – a spinach-like green) and
okra. Cabbage, cucumbers, potatoes and
carrots are available, but still considered foreign food. They grow well in Benin . Who does love pomme frites? Pineapples – which up until now, I had only
associated with Hawaii
– grow everywhere and are as sweet as sugar.
Mangos, passion fruit, and oranges are incredibly good.
Pounded yam (sliced, boiled,
then mashed till smooth and elastic with a mortar and pestle) is a typical Benin
dish, served with a soup. I attempted to
incorporate cornbread, but it didn’t rise like it should have. It was good, though.
Bananas, bananas, bananas... they grow everywhere! small ones, large ones, plantain - you name it!
Crayfish (or dried shrimp) is used
a lot to season soups and stews. And of course, Maggi is king.
