Where the wild food grows

Where the wild food grows Over the years of living abroad, Rasa and I have learned not to ask what we are eating and where it comes from.  But I could not resist running these pictures, shedding some light on where all that fine African cuisine comes from. Of course you have the world staple of maize (corn), which was mostly grown in southern Cameroon. As we moved north, the staple crop changed to sorghum.  The main way of eating this was to mash it up and serve as a sticky paste like achu. I had to include a picture of pork in the Muslim north.  When faced with starvation, I guess people really will eat anything. Fish made up a major part of the diet anywhere there was a body of water.  Here are some elaborate fish nets. Then there is the traditional way of catching them with stick and line. A lot of the crops are dried out along side the road.  This is mostly to preserve them but the road is used because there are not many other flat dry places to do it. This lady was laying out okra and some basil leaves.  Makes a great stew for your achu. This is it for the random pictures.  The next blog will be about our not so near-death experience with a 'lion' in the national park. Robert J Kent Jr- robjkentjr@gmail.com Water Resource Policy Adviser www.robrasa.com Voice Mail: +1 (631) 458-1119 Skype ID: rob-rasa LinkedIn, Facebook, Plaxo Contact  |  Support Us  |  Home  |  Books              all content ©2006-2009 click to REMOVE your email Robert & Rasa's rubbernecking

From field to market

From field to market This week's pictures are actually about the transportation of food from the field to the market.  As I was looking for shots, I started to see some pretty funny scenes with this topic. I though this was a great example of a road being constructed.  They never close it completely off but always keep one half open. We thought the trailer was going to hit us as we drove by.  From the looks of the top, the whole left side is smashed in, slightly throwing the wheel alignment off. This bridge is in sorry shape.  There must have been several cases of cars going over the sides judging by the absence of guard rails. Here is another bridge but this one keeps smashing up the tops of people's cars. Make a quick turn and this load would surely spill.  Notice the bike with chickens on the right. I have never seen this before but the goats seemed to enjoy their ride. Here are the ladies pushing the day's pickings in to town, which is only another 10km away. The road transportation we saw was mostly localized and it seems that the long distance stuff went out on the river to the south.  Next week will be about gathering the crops. Robert J Kent Jr- robjkentjr@gmail.com Water Resource Policy Adviser www.robrasa.com Voice Mail: +1 (631) 458-1119 Skype ID: rob-rasa LinkedIn, Facebook, Plaxo Contact  |  Support Us  |  Home  |  Books              all content ©2006-2009 click to REMOVE your email Robert & Rasa's rubbernecking

Fruit and flies

Fruit and flies For Rasa and I, there is always something about going shopping in a new market, be it a mall in suburbia or dirt patch in Mali.  The markets in Cameroon proved to be no less entertaining for us. These had to have been some of the largest cassavas we have ever seen.  They are great fried up in butter with a little salt. I challenge you to find tubers that look this good.  The funny thing was we never stopped to buy a mountain of tubers because it was always more than we could eat. Again with the donut balls, they are our favorite food after all.  They knew they had an easy sale when they saw Rasa running towards them. Some citrus, pineapples, bananas, and just to the left something they call purple plums, which taste nothing like a plum. I liked the lettuce lady because she just scowled at me when I tried to get her to smile for the picture. This was our butcher.  Here you can see him chopping us up a side of goat for our stew recipe. And if you were wondering what all those little black spots were, here is a closer look.  I will leave out David's description of how this meat gets seasoned over time. We did make our goat stew in Zinder and it was delicious.  Our next entry will be about where and how all this food is gathered. Robert J Kent Jr- robjkentjr@gmail.com Water Resource Policy Adviser www.robrasa.com Voice Mail: +1 (631) 458-1119 Skype ID: rob-rasa LinkedIn, Facebook, Plaxo Contact  |  Support Us  |  Home  |  Books              all content ©2006-2009 click to REMOVE your email Robert & Rasa's rubbernecking

Restaurants

Restaurants Considering we were in the Heart of Africa, we really did eat well.  It seems a lot of world class French chefs immigrate to Cameroon. This was the first beer tap David saw since leaving southern Africa.  What a disappointment then that it did not work. Looks like any old cutting board with a well used knife. A cut of beef ready to be floured and fried. I routinely do this with my food but for some reason it always comes out black and the fire alarm goes off. Yes, this is just a salad.  But what a salad when you have not had lettuce for a month. Peppered duck: my favorite restaurant meal until Morocco. Pit roasted chicken.  This was good but the grilled fish was better. We definitely did not starve for lack of food here.  The markets offered even more fun filled meat products though. Robert J Kent Jr- robjkentjr@gmail.com Water Resource Policy Adviser www.robrasa.com Voice Mail: +1 (631) 458-1119 Skype ID: rob-rasa LinkedIn, Facebook, Plaxo Contact  |  Support Us  |  Home  |  Books              all content ©2006-2009 click to REMOVE your email Robert & Rasa's rubbernecking

Homes and Huts

Homes and huts This stretch of Cameroon was also the first place where traditional mud and grass huts became the norm.  Here are some of the more interesting ones we came across. I like that the people here still kept a traditional house along side their modern gate and cement structures. Not exactly a white picket fence but looks ideal enough. This one was in a remote rural area; it did not even have a door. These struck me as being almost Asian.  This was one of the more artistic styles we saw. Hut cluster with the laundry out to dry.  Sometimes there is also a corral for livestock in among the huts. This was early in the morning and the smoky hut must be cooking the daily fufu.  Just imagine how smoky it is inside. Here is a hut supporting a squash vine.  The structures are pretty strong because the pumpkins that grow there are huge. This is where the people live and next week will be where they eat.  After that it is the markets where they shop. Robert J Kent Jr- robjkentjr@gmail.com Water Resource Policy Adviser www.robrasa.com Voice Mail: +1 (631) 458-1119 Skype ID: rob-rasa LinkedIn, Facebook, Plaxo Contact  |  Support Us  |  Home  |  Books              all content ©2006-2009 click to REMOVE your email Robert & Rasa's rubbernecking