Fast Food

Post by Lara

24 October 2012

In American culture, the term “fast food” often has a negative connotation—bringing to mind calorie-packed meals high in carbohydrates and fats kept hot under a lamp with a way-too-big sugary drink on the side, and a toy for anyone 12 and under. Restaurants seem to want to try to brand themselves as something outside of the “fast food” umbrella, but at the same time Americans are notorious for wanting things now, if not an hour ago. It’s an interesting set-up. We want food ready now, but we don’t want to think of it as “fast food” and we would prefer if it were made after we ordered it, rather than sitting under a heat lamp until we came and asked for it. 

Needless to say, Salone’s version of “fast food” is a bit different.  We’ve never seen a McDonald’s or KFC here, although there is a random Big Mac advertisement hanging on a fence in Bo that we used to walk past during training.  “Fast food,” or food that is pre-made and ready for you to pay for it and enjoy, comes in two varieties: “street food” and “cookeries”. 

“Street food” is always something you can eat while you walk (or ride in an over-crowded vehicle), and it comes in many varieties: donuts, fried meat pies, fried bean sandwiches, roasted peanuts, boiled peanuts, roasted corn, shortbread cookies, and the list goes on.  It seems that at least by city, each item has a price and it doesn’t matter who’s selling it. Coconut cakes are always Le 500 in Bo.  Boiled peanuts come in 3 different sizes for Le 200, Le 500, and Le 1000 in both Bo and our town.  Fried bean sandwiches are Le 1000 in Bo and at our site. Kevin has one for lunch every day. In general, street food is delicious and affordable- though we’ve been advised more than a few times to be wary of any vendors who don’t practice good hygiene, since food-borne illnesses are common here. 

Still, we tend to eat street food almost every day. When boiled peanuts are plentiful, we enjoy buying a bag of them and snacking on them while we cook dinner.  Right now, we tend to eat more roasted peanuts and donuts than anything else. Soon, though, more produce will be in season and the street food options will grow. 

“Cookeries” (or kukri, in Krio) are sometimes run as restaurants and sometimes are toted around town.  Every school has several cookery women who sell lunch daily (we Peace Corps volunteers refer to them as “lunch ladies,” but I don’t know if anyone else calls them that).  Most towns also have a house or two that sell cookery regularly, and in our town there is a bar that sells cold (and I mean ice cold) beverages and usually has a cookery option as well.  The options for cookery are usually cassva root or fufu or rice with a sauce to go on top. Cassava root is a starchy tuber that is boiled and then patted into a ball. The cookery women usually have two different size balls that they sell for Le 500 and Le 1000.  Cassava root is served with any number of sauces. I personally enjoy it with granat sup [peanut soup- a peppery sauce made with fish and ground peanuts] and binch [beans, pepper, and palm oil boiled into a thick sauce]. Fufu is fermented cassava root—kind of sour and fairly sticky, rolled into a ball (for the same price as the cassava root) and often served with granat sup. Rice can be served with anything, including the sauces mentioned above and plassas [green leaf sauces that usually have fish or chicken and always have a ton of pepper and palm oil].  Cookery meals are served where you order them and come with a glass of water (I provide my own filtered water). 

Culturally, it’s normal to share a plate and even to eat with one’s hands [not our favorite thing, but we’ve done it].  Often a teacher at my school will offer to share his or her food with me or will buy me my own bowl a few times each week.  It’s considered rude to turn down food, though you are not expected to finish your plate (someone will always finish it- so no one is offended when some food is leftover for them).

One nice thing about living in a tropical climate is that you don’t need heat lamps to keep food warm- donuts, bean sandwiches, and other snacks are carried around in clear plastic buckets with lids, so the sun keeps them nice and warm all day. The cookery meals are usually carried in big plastic containers that keep the heat in just fine.  That being said, we don’t usually have the option of having something made after we order it—many of the vendors wake up incredibly early to make their chop [food], and then spend the rest of the day selling what they made that morning.  As far as calories and nutrition, some options are very healthy, like boiled peanuts with very little salt or vitamin-rich cassava leaf sauce. At the same time, some options are just carbs and sugar. We don’t tend to feel bad about indulging though, since we are burning way more calories just going about our daily lives here than we did in a typical day in Ohio.  It may not be the Golden Arches or a Fourth Meal, but the “fast food” that Salone offers definitely keeps us happy in between meals that take at least an hour to prepare every time.