As anyone who knows me can attest, food is a great love of mine. Therefore...
How is the food?
Typical food in south eastern Liberia is as follows: large bowl of imported white rice (probably from India, the US, or Vietnam) and a second bowl of very oily, spicy “soup”. “Soup” is very oil stew that comes in the following varieties: chopped greens with piece of fish or “cow meat” or other type of meat in it, stewed beans with fish and/or “cow meat”, or eggplant with fish and/or meat. There is also “palm butter” which I have yet to have. Which is amazing given that it is the regional dish. But any dish that elicits laughter when I ask “what is it?” is not something I am eager to try. I understand it to be a large bowl of white rice covered in spicy palm oil.
If you don’t want white rice and spicy, oily stew, you can
go to a tea shop and get one of the following:
“fried egg” (sort of like an omelette), fried egg in bread (i.e. white
roll) with mayonnaise (aka egg sandwich), mayonnaise sandwich, spaghetti,
spaghetti with beans or perhaps “quakeroat” (i.e. oatmeal). In all dishes from tea shops, the secret
ingredient is “chicken sou” (aka chicken bullion). In fried eggs, you’ve mixed ½ a bullion
square. In spaghetti, you’ve made a
sauce with tomato paste, onion, spicy pepper and a bullion square. (In case you’re thinking “great! Local eggs!” let me add that many of the eggs
in Liberia are imported from India.) See note under “Seriously. What is life in Liberia like?” regarding how
the agricultural system needs to be rebuilt.
What do you eat?
My daily food intake is as follows:
- Real, brewed coffee (which I get from Monrovia or have sent in) with a spoonful or two or powdered milk. I boil the water the night before and store it in a thermos. With several hours of electricity in the evening (assuming there is a football game on across the street), a hot water boiler was a brilliant purchase.
- At school I purchase what I call “peanut butter squares” from a woman who works there. Small cubes that apparently are a mixture of peanut butter, farina and sugar. There are supposed to be 1 square for 5 ld (Liberian dollars), but she give me 3 for 10 ld. (1USD = 73 LD)
- After school, I walk home, change clothes, wash my hands, and go out for lunch. I rotate between egg sandwich (2 eggs), spaghetti with beans (or now, spaghetti with fried egg) and some sort of rice/soup combo. Everyone at the “cook shops” (places that serve rice/soup or palm butter) know that my preference is the beans and rice. (Given the lack of nutrients I was encountering (white rice, white bread, and cassava don’t seem like a good diet plan), I was constantly seeking out protein (aka beans).
- My new thing is, when I’m going to a tea shop for either egg sandwich or spaghetti, to bring along my own bottle of Tabasco sauce and/or fake, shelf stable cheese wedges to make things a little more interesting.
- Beverages: While many places in Liberia have “mineral water” (aka water in sealed plastic bags or plastic bottles), the water in Barclayville seems to be water bagged by the establishment. Which I won’t drink. So I always bring my own water. Or, at tea shops, I order tea. I specify “black Lipton”, which isn’t actually Lipton, but it is a black tea bag. If I just say “tea”, I will likely get Ovaltine or a chocolate Ovaltine product, with sweetened condensed milk and hot water. Which isn’t bad, just not what I want. I have been known to purchase a bottle of Liberian beer to drink at home in the evening, too.
- I used to sometimes cook some sort of dinner, but honestly, cooking on an outdoor kerosene stove is a messy pain. So, dinner now is something like bananas with peanut butter, crackers with peanut butter, a hard boil eggs with Tabasco sauce, a fruit (coconut or pineapple or papaya) – no refrigeration so that I have to eat it in one sitting, or some other similar thing. Now that I have a hot water boiler (purchased in Monrovia a few weeks ago), at night (if there is electricity), I might make oatmeal or farina (because I can just mix the grain and water in my cup and stir – with powdered milk and some sort of sweetener). I decided to get fancy last week and make cheesy farina. Which meant mixing farina, fake shelf stable cheese, salt, pepper, Tabasco and that shelf stable Parmesan product that comes in a green container in the US, but a blue container here. (While I feel that fake Parmesan shouldn’t be part of anyone’s pantry in a place where one has a refrigerator, I’m happy to have it here.)
- Real, brewed coffee (which I get from Monrovia or have sent in) with a spoonful or two or powdered milk. I boil the water the night before and store it in a thermos. With several hours of electricity in the evening (assuming there is a football game on across the street), a hot water boiler was a brilliant purchase.
- At school I purchase what I call “peanut butter squares” from a woman who works there. Small cubes that apparently are a mixture of peanut butter, farina and sugar. There are supposed to be 1 square for 5 ld (Liberian dollars), but she give me 3 for 10 ld. (1USD = 73 LD)
- After school, I walk home, change clothes, wash my hands, and go out for lunch. I rotate between egg sandwich (2 eggs), spaghetti with beans (or now, spaghetti with fried egg) and some sort of rice/soup combo. Everyone at the “cook shops” (places that serve rice/soup or palm butter) know that my preference is the beans and rice. (Given the lack of nutrients I was encountering (white rice, white bread, and cassava don’t seem like a good diet plan), I was constantly seeking out protein (aka beans).
- My new thing is, when I’m going to a tea shop for either egg sandwich or spaghetti, to bring along my own bottle of Tabasco sauce and/or fake, shelf stable cheese wedges to make things a little more interesting.
- Beverages: While many places in Liberia have “mineral water” (aka water in sealed plastic bags or plastic bottles), the water in Barclayville seems to be water bagged by the establishment. Which I won’t drink. So I always bring my own water. Or, at tea shops, I order tea. I specify “black Lipton”, which isn’t actually Lipton, but it is a black tea bag. If I just say “tea”, I will likely get Ovaltine or a chocolate Ovaltine product, with sweetened condensed milk and hot water. Which isn’t bad, just not what I want. I have been known to purchase a bottle of Liberian beer to drink at home in the evening, too.
- I used to sometimes cook some sort of dinner, but honestly, cooking on an outdoor kerosene stove is a messy pain. So, dinner now is something like bananas with peanut butter, crackers with peanut butter, a hard boil eggs with Tabasco sauce, a fruit (coconut or pineapple or papaya) – no refrigeration so that I have to eat it in one sitting, or some other similar thing. Now that I have a hot water boiler (purchased in Monrovia a few weeks ago), at night (if there is electricity), I might make oatmeal or farina (because I can just mix the grain and water in my cup and stir – with powdered milk and some sort of sweetener). I decided to get fancy last week and make cheesy farina. Which meant mixing farina, fake shelf stable cheese, salt, pepper, Tabasco and that shelf stable Parmesan product that comes in a green container in the US, but a blue container here. (While I feel that fake Parmesan shouldn’t be part of anyone’s pantry in a place where one has a refrigerator, I’m happy to have it here.)
When I arrived, I had high hopes for the market, but it is,
as my students say “poor”. More on that
later.
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