On Ghanaian Cuisine, the Good and the Not So Good

Banku and goat meat: Ghanaians love it. Me, not so much.Food is very important to me, which is why it has taken me a while to post this entry. I think about food about 70% of the time, so I had to streamline and organize my gourmande thoughts.

I never expected to be wowed by African cuisine. This is a good thing. I haven’t been wowed by it. Ghanaians like very heavy, very spicy food. The diet of the typical Ghanaian consists of vast quantities of rice, plantains, groundnuts, cassava, fried fish, palm oil and pepper. I have never been very good with hot sauce; so many Ghanaian dishes are completely off limits to me. There are however, a couple of Ghanaian dishes that I do enjoy. First is the famous Jollof rice, which can be found all over Ghana and also in other West African countries. I saw it on a menu in Mali as Riz Yollof. Jollof, Yollof, whatever you want to call it, it can be quite delicious or, if it isn’t made well, you will feel as if you are eating out of a trashcan. The rice if boiled and mixed with a tomato paste and usually served with chicken or vegetables. Basic , but it does the job. The other dish I quite enjoy is Kelewele and I will probably fail in my attempt to describe it. Think plantains, tossed with sugar, pepper and other spices and then fried in hot oil until they little cubes of plantain are a rich brown and simultaneously soft and chewy. However, it is one of those dishes you can only have so much of before you start to feel ill. I would fill you all in on other Ghanaian dishes such as Banku, Kenke and Fufu, but I really couldn’t tell you much except that I can’t quite stomach them.

All the students in the NYU in Ghana program are required to have a meal plan. This consists of dinner every week night and the venue alternates between an Indian run place called Sunshine Salads that serves salads (obviously), sandwiches, rice, pasta, curry etc. and Maquis Tante Marie, a restaurant specializing in West African cuisine. I’ll be honest – I don’t go to dinner very often. It seems like a terrible waste of money, but my bowels thank me for it. Also, 7pm is too damn early to eat dinner!

Accra being a very cosmopolitan city, there are obviously many non-Ghanaian dining options. There are several decent Chinese and Indian restaurants, as well as Lebanese, Italian and American. One coffee shop/tearoom place near the NYU academic center is particularly popular with students: Melting Moments. Though all the sandwiches are drowned in mayonnaise, their smoothies are heaven and if I am craving western food it’s a good go-to. I suspect I may have gotten food poisoning from there a couple of times, but it still tastes good and I am too stubborn to stop going back for more.

On Halloween I went with a couple of girlfriends to Ryan’s Irish Pub to begin the festivities early with some cocktails. Glancing over the menu I was rather ruffled by the exorbitantly priced food, but I ordered a steak baguette anyway and oh boy, am I glad I did. It was like a Philly cheese steak. But better. I’m salivating right now. I was also comforted to see plenty of standard English pub fare on the menu, from fish&chips to spotted dick. Though Ryan’s is far pricier than Melting Moments, and waitresses are, well, I can’t think of a way to say it politely so I won’t say it at all, Ryan’s may be the new answer to my cravings for good quality meat and dishes that remind me of my cozy Anglo-influenced upbringing.

In summation, all I can say is THANK GOD for all the expatriate gastro-entrepreneurs in Accra and of course for Shoprite, the massive supermarket in the Accra mall that caters to French, English and American expats. Oh, and I almost forgot! Thank God for my fabulous kitchen.