Comfort Food

The team met at Comfort Foods on Thursday night to try traditional Ghanaian cooking. Anticipation was high and the team was excited to taste everything. "Am I going to be able to eat Ghanian food for 16 days?" was definitely a question in the back of everyone's mind.

The travel team, and a few extra arrived before Marcia, so we decided to check out the Ghanaian market which was in the same plaza. The market was small, about the size of a convenience store. Most of the items inside seemed to be food staples, like rice flour. There were whole smoked chickens in boxes. On a shelf in the back was smoked fish. Wikipedia tells me (I know I know) that smoking meats has been around forever as a way to preserve meats and proteins which ordinarily spoil quickly. In a place were electricity is intermittent and refrigeration is iffy at best smoking meat is such an obvious solution. It is just another reminder of the luxuries we take for granted.



Comfort welcomed us to her restaurant and even put on an African movie for us. We set up one long table that accommodated all 15 of us. Dinner was served family style, at the request of Marcia, so that we could each try all of the dishes.

Red Red

One of the first dishes to come out was Red Red. Ghana Web describes it as bean sauce made with black eyed peas, crushed tomatoes, hot pepper (habanero or scotch bonnet), pink onion, and garlic or ginger to season it. Despite the promise of its name and hot pepper, this dish was surprisingly mild. Not bad, just not what I was expecting. A couple of my teammates chose this as their second favorite because it reminded them of black eyed peas. I'm definitely going to try it again in country. I figure it is like spaghetti sauce, everyone makes it different.

Red Red is served with fried plantains, and I must say this was hands down everyone's favorite food. I'm pretty sure I can live on fried plantains for 3 weeks. (My vegetarian teammate concurs). Fried plantains are exactly what they sound like and they taste exactly like they do at any Cuban restaurant. We ate two entire platters of fried plantains.

Spinach and Fish

Next up was spinach with fish. This dish was very flavorful, and I enjoyed it. There was definitely a strong fishy flavor, which might turn off those who don't like that. It left a distinct yellow-orange colored oily smear on my plate. Marcia told me that there is a version of this dish that is very red in color and that one is extremely spicy. (My spice loving heart just danced a jig)

Vegetable Rice

Jollof Rice

There were two rice dishes on our menu. One was a rice with vegetables in it and the other was Jollof rice. The vegetable rice was definitely another of the favorites of the team. It was white rice with broccoli, carrots, peas, and corn. Really simple and really good. Unfortunately the vegetable rice might not be available everywhere we go. The Jollof rice was good as well, it was red in color, but not spicy. This is something that will be available pretty much everywhere in Ghana. This is another one of those recipes that vary by region.  The rice we had does not match the description that I saw on Ghana Web, so I'm not sure what it was flavored with.

Center: Groundnut Soup with Banku

Next up was Groundnut Soup (Peanut butter Soup) and Banku. Groundnut soup is made with peanut butter, chicken, sweet potatoes (these are a little more like potatoes than sweet potatoes), and spicy seasonings. There are more ingredients, but this also can vary. Let me first point out that it doesn't taste like peanuts or peanut butter at all. I comes out as a creamy, slightly spicy soup with large chunks of vegetables and meat in it. Banku is kind of like a dumpling. The version we tried was made with corn, but it could also be made with cassava. On it's  own, it's very starchy and bland, but tastes good dipped in the soup.

The last item they brought out was something I recognized immediately, chicken wings! It seems that spicy chicken wings know no cultural boundaries. (Maybe it does, but I'm not aware of it). While these won't supplant my favorite Thai Jerk Grill chicken wings, they could possibly make my top ten. Not everyone in our group likes spicy food, but that just means more for me.

And that concluded our culinary mini-tour of Ghanaian food. Each of us found foods that we can eat while we are in Ghana. The flavors and spices are different than the usual flavor palate of the US. I for one am looking forward to eating things that are new and different. I wonder what food from home I'll miss most.