“We had so much fun in Ghana and they are really lovely people.”
The rain started around 12:30 last night. I was lying in bed when I heard the first drops plunking the sill then more drops. The sound was soothing almost like a lullaby. I drifted off to sleep. When I woke this morning, everything was soaked but the rain had stopped. The sky soon cleared and the sun came out. The morning has that after rain chill you know won’t last.
The spawn and I are now openly avowed enemies in an endless war. When I saw it on the feeder earlier, I went out and tried to sneak the hose, but the spawn heard, jumped off the feeder and sat on the back of the lounge chair flitting its tail at me and chattering. It was irate. I got the hose anyway, and the spawn took off running onto the branches still chattering at me. It stopped a couple of times, looked at me and let me have it. Later I noticed it was back so I went out on the deck, but the spawn immediately took off though I think I managed to spray it a bit. This spawn has become my white whale.
Last night I watched an old Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations. It was his trip to Ghana which I had seen first time around in 2007. It was Bourdain’s first trip to sub-Saharan Africa which, according to him is a large, mysterious land mass. On the voice-over he mispronounced Accra then did it again and again even though the Minister correctly pronounced. He also mispronounced akpeteshie, a homemade really strong alcohol in Ghana. He drank it a few times and raised his glass in appreciation, but I don’t think he really liked it. His face was a giveaway, but he didn’t want to offend so he smiled and the Ghanaian men loved it. The filming was all over Ghana and even in the Northern Region though he didn’t take an overnight bus but rather a Ghanaian Air Force helicopter. He ate in a chop bar, in a market and right by the ocean with the Minister of Tourism. He said he loved the variety of hot peppers which I didn’t always. Sometimes the food was so hot you couldn’t taste other than the pepper. He had it all, the best Ghanaian food: kenkey, fufu, t-zed, palm nut stew, groundnut stew and rock lobsters fresh from the ocean. I envied him the lobsters and remembered eating them in Dix’s Cove. We had paid a couple of guys who got them for us right there in the water then they boiled them in a pot on a charcoal burner sitting on rocks by the water. That was an all time amazing meal. I watched Bourdain wander through Makola Market tasting food along the way. He ate plantain chips and I wanted some. He even tried grasscutter and was glad he hadn’t seen one until after he’d eaten. It is a rodent but a rather tasty rodent.
I loved watching Ghana unfold through dancing, music, Kente weaving, clothes made of colorful cloth, the faces of its beautiful children and the joy the Ghanaians take in welcoming a visitor. Bourdain got that part perfectly.
Explore posts in the same categories: MusingsTags: a war of human versus squirrel, Anthony Bourdain and Ghana, Fufu, kenkey, palm nut stew, plantain chips, rain. beautiful morning, red spawn of Satan, T-Zed
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May 22, 2015 at 11:31 am
I haven’t heard of Anthony Bourdain yet but his Ghana show is on Youtube in case someone is interested:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_UofLaFyJI
Parental discretion is advised? I’ll take a look later and will also search for his “beer and sausages in Germany”. Shopping and tea break first…
May 22, 2015 at 11:47 am
Birgit,
I watched No Reservations all the time and often found him a bit too full of himself. I thought many times that all the info he was so casually throwing out about each country he had just memorized before he got there. Ghana, though, was a bit different as he had no knowledge of Africa and was surprised by what he found. The show shows a good bit of Ghana, places I know and places I’ve been. The food looked wonderful and made me wish for lunch at a good chop bar.
He has mouth on him sometimes which is why the warning.
May 22, 2015 at 5:30 pm
Interesting video of this colorful country, I wished I could at least smell these mouth-watering dishes. The international festival in my hometown doesn’t take place this year so I guess I’ll have to wait a little bit longer for my next Ghanaian taste adventure.
May 22, 2015 at 5:40 pm
Birgit,
The markets are amazing, and the cloth markets overwhelm you with the colors. Some food I could eat for every meal while I’d be happy not to eat some of it ever again.
Give me plantain, Guinea fowl and soups.
May 22, 2015 at 3:11 pm
I have only seen one program with him and I think he was somewhere close to Uganda. To be honest I didn’t watch it that closely but I did hear Uganda at least once or twice 🙂 A chef, isn’t he?
Cloudy and very windy all day and now the rain falls too, they say it will be better tomorrow.
Just be careful so You don’t go the same way as Ahab 🙂 🙂
Have a great day!
Christer.
May 22, 2015 at 3:20 pm
Christer,
He is a chef. I don’t think I saw the Uganda program. I’ll have to check to see if it’s on the listing. I would like that one.
Still sunny and low 60’s here-a nice day.
I’ll keep an eye on that beast. Today it was darn aggressive in its comments to me
Have a great evening!
May 22, 2015 at 5:45 pm
In many countries, especially in tropical areas, the food has an over abundance of hot peppers for a reason. Nothing can live in the capsaicin in the peppers which means that the dishes were invented at a time when sanitary conditions were less than they are today. They figured out a long time ago that if a person ate a mild dish they got sick and those that ate the spicy hot dishes didn’t get sick. My grand mother came here in 1905 from Eastern Europe and she taught my mother to cook. In her house paprikas is considered a spice.
I don’t get it that some people put so much hot pepper in their food that the only thing they can taste is the heat from the peppers. “Bring me some Tobasco sauce to put some more flavor in those Ghost Pepper Buffalo wings”. 🙂 If you think it’s too hot going down, then just wait and find out how hot it will be comming out the other end. That’s hemorrhoid hell. 😦
I don’t generally eat foods from third world countries including India. What’s so good about the food from a country that considers a chicken an endangered species.
May 22, 2015 at 6:04 pm
Bob,
Paprika is so very mild compared to Ghanaian peppers. Even here Ghanaians covered their food with Sriracha. I knew that hot peppers sometimes caused diarrhea which also cleaned my system so in that way it helped.
My Dad love Chinese hot mustard and wasn’t happy unless his nose run. I also use it liberally on my Chinese food, but I wasn’t into the heat of food in Ghana.
I love Indian food-first had it in Ghana then in London and now here. It is so varied and tasty. I buy naan bread all the time, one of my favorites.
Many Americans have bland palates and aren’t at all adventurous in trying new foods. I love all sorts of cuisines. I think you’d find South African food delicious. Maybe give it a try sometime.
May 22, 2015 at 8:29 pm
Correction, I like Naan bread. I can’t eat any kind of curry, even when ordered mild. I have tried Malsala and butter chicken and couldn’t eat any of them. When I flew to China there were a lot of Indians traveling to India through Hong Kong. When the meal service began the flight attendants began by serving the special meals ordered by the Indian passengers. When they opened their meals the odor of the food made me feel sick at my stomach. When I was in southern China they didn’t serve that hot mustard. Instead they served red chile in oil. My father used to call the Chinese restaurant mustard English mustard.
Of course Americans have very bland palates because our grand parents and ancestors came from Northern Europe. Think of Irish Stew or corned beef and cabbage. As we become a more diverse country our American palates are changing. Even here in Dallas we have restaurants serving food from every part of the world and we have large ethnic grocery stores. I don’t think we have a South African restaurant.
May 22, 2015 at 8:59 pm
Bob,
Few Indian restaurants have much curry, but at least you’ve tried a few dishes. I like the spicy smell of Indian food but then it was restaurants, not a cylinder flying ion the sky.
I can understand why your father called the mustard that. It looks just like English mustard but is a bit hotter.
My father was a meat and potatoes guy. Chinese food was about as exotic as he’d get. The problem was he’d never try anything new. He might have liked it. My mother was an adventurer when it came to food. I appreciated that.
I love to cook all sorts of ethnic foods. My friends are totally willing to give it all a try.
May 23, 2015 at 9:57 am
Hi Kat,
You need a fully charged super soaker stationed right by the door to the deck. Be a spawn sniper. 🙂
How does one pronounce Accra? Ah kra? He didn’t say acre, did he? I haven’t seen that particular episode but I’ll check it out. I like Anthony Bourdain. He’s full of himself but he’s also not too pretentious about food which is refreshing in a TV chef.
No rain here yesterday. It was a little cool, though.
Hope the day was enjoyable.
May 23, 2015 at 10:06 am
Hi Caryn,
I have the hose on jet and it knocks him off the deck with a direct shot.
A cra with a short A sound. He said ak ra which is what I said before I got there. The minister said it to him but he either didn’t listen or just didn’t hear the difference.
I watched his programs especially No Reservations. I agree about his willingness to try new foods, but he spouts off casually which is suspect for me as if he practiced.
Cool day here too yesterday.
It was a good day!