Food! It’s an amazing thing. Walking down the streets of Saboba, Tamale, Yendi… you name it and you’ll almost always be greeted by a series of smells embodying the flavors of Ghanaian cuisine. Women tending to massive pots that contain their merchandise for the day, large logs sticking out of the roaring fires on which the cauldrons rest. I (within reason) try as many new things as possible, whether it be a small fried snack-item or plastic bags filled with random-colored fluid that market women have insisted I drink. Yeah, typhoid is definitely possible, but the experience makes it completely worth it. Not to mention delicious. Most of the time.

I can’t possibly describe it all, but here is a glance into some of the main eats in Ghana. Lots of pictures for you to enjoy! (due to technical issues, all the pictures are together at the bottom of the post)

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Coco being poured

Showcase Item #1: Coco and Bowlfruit (Traditional Breakfast)

Coco is the Ghanaian equivalent of porridge. Liquidy, smooth, and thick, you are served it in a container to drink if you are eating where you buy it. Otherwise, like all Ghanaian goods, it is given to you in a plastic bag. Just as a side note, everything in Ghana comes in a plastic bag: drinks, water, bread, egg, coffee, and more. Anyway, coco is made from fermented maize, groundnut, and a bunch of spices. Some volunteers love it, some hate it. I love it. It’s amazing! Coco is eaten with the Ghanaian equivalent of a doughnut: bowlfruit. These round doughballs are addictive, but definitely not healthy to eat a lot of.

“Madame! Undopoi!” I greet the coco lady every morning by asking her how her morning is.

“Lafiebi!” She tells me it’s fine. “Fine” is the standard response in Ghana to any question.

“Um ba 2000 coco and sugar, and 2000 bowlfruit.” I order my filling 28-cent breakfast. “My friends it Canada, I want to show them coco. Can I take your picture?” The lady laughed and nodded, resulting in the above picture. Check out more pictures of coco and bowl fruit at the end of the post!

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Boiled yams with beans and stew, in a bag ready for eating

Showcase Item #2: Boiled Yams with Beans (I do this for lunch sometimes)

Especially in Saboba, yams are in widespread use. Generally, due to bad roads and low access to outside markets, the main foods eaten in rural communities tend to depend on what’s farmed there the most. Though boiled yams are available in most places in Northern Ghana, Saboba has an abundance for use.

Yams are also available fried, but I like the boiled stuff because its softer and available with beans. Fried yams are really good too, though, and come with a spicy sauce made from tomato and “pepe” (a kind of red chilli).

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Eating t-zed (the bowl on the left), with a stew I don't remember (right). Also note the soap and bowl of water, which is how I clean my hands before eating.

Showcase Item #3: T-Zed!!

“Some people will even eat one meal in the day.” Yousif was telling me about the people in the communities who are, as he says, living in “absolute poverty.” There are many factors (in and out of peoples’ control) that result in this, but that is a different discussion.

“But every night, whatever the matter, everyone must get T-Zed. We call it our constant. No matter what happens, the one meal people will get is T-zed.” Yousif continued, with conviction. And it’s true. When I get home every night, T-zed is there. In fact, the Konkomba word for food, “bissa,” actually means “T-zed.”

T-zed is dough that is kneaded over high heat, made from different grains depending on where you go. The traditional, village t-zed is maize-and-cassava based.  It is eaten by grabbing some with your hand, kneading it a bit in your fist, and dipping it into a stew of some kind. This stew is usually made from “brra” (habiscus), groundnut, “okro” (okra), or ayoyo (a really slippery, gooey spinach-type vegetable). Fish is often added into the stew, but in Ghanaian culture you must “chew your meat” separate from the food. I’ve been told the belief is that meat is precious, so why water down the flavor by mixing it into the food?

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A calabash of pito

Showcase Item #4: Pito (Traditional Liquor)

Pito is brewed almost everywhere in Northern Ghanaian communities, and is a slightly sweet drink made from Guinea corn. The corn is harvested (basically looks like branches), dried, and then thrashed. Thrashing is done by laying out the grain on the floor, then taking massive logs of wood and swinging it vertically (imagine a full-body motion) down on the branches. Its definitely one of the most physically intense activities. At the end you collect and burn the branches, and what’s left is the grain (see picture). This grain is then allowed to germinate (see picture), boiled together with this other plant to allow for easier fermenting and filtering (see picture), then fermented with yeast (see picture). The end result is… pito! All the pictures are at the bottom of the post.

Often when you go to get pito, you’re asked if you want the “hard one” or the “soft one.” The picture above is the “soft one.” Also, in general pito tastes different from place to place, which is really cool because there’s no way to know what you’re gonna get!

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This is where food (maize, rice, cassava, etc) is stored by families in the village

How food is stored in the village:

I vaguely remember someone asking me about this, so I figured I’d report back with a pretty interesting answer! Farmers store their grain, rice, etc (major foodstuffs) in a big round mud structure that has no door. “I put many layers,” Elijah points to the thatched roofing on the food storage. “Otherwise the rain will make it all bad.”

Periodically, the family will open up the storage by removing the thatched roofing to fetch supplies for a couple of weeks. Inside, the structure is sub-divided into several sections to allow for different types of supplies (see pictures).

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