Enjoying (and adjusting) to Salone Food

It was going to happen sooner or later: An edition of Through the Eyes of ‘U’ regarding Sierra Leonean food. Prior to my travels, whenever I met up with Americans who had previously been to Salone, the thing they would talk about the most was the food.

I was warned of the strong chance that I might get sick, simply because of foreign bacteria with which my body has never had to deal with.

 

That said, I am happy to report that I haven’t once gotten sick from any of the food I’ve consumed. I’ve rather enjoyed most of the meals here.

 

Some Sierra Leonean dishes I’ve tried include: Cassava leaves with rice, foo-foo, stew, groundnut soup, gari, and coconut jelly.

 

The one thing to which I’ve had to adapt is the spiciness of the food here. I actually have a fairly weak tongue when it comes to hot and spicy food, and most of the food I’ve tried has been exactly that. So the adjustment period has been interesting, to say the least.

 

Anyway, I think, much to the surprise of my Awoko colleagues, the cassava leaves with rice is my favorite of all the dishes I’ve tried. My colleagues seemed initially surprised to see me enjoy the popular dish. Having a Japanese-Vietnamese background, I’ve eaten rice nearly every day of my life, so any dish that I can have with rice (cassava leaves, groundnut soup, stew, etc.) is something I’ve enjoyed here. In fact, the pasty texture of the cassava leaves reminds me a lot of a delicious Japanese curry dish that my mother makes, so I was fond of it right away.

 

The first and only time I tried foo-foo was at a special event after a church service. A kind reader who enjoyed my column on my first experience at a Sierra Leonean church offered to take me to her church the next week and I was able to attend the following luncheon sale, where I got my picks at a variety of wonderful Sierra Leonean dishes. Foo-foo is probably one food that I will have to try more and more. The first time I tried the dish, I took big bites, trying to chew the food, and then one of my colleagues told me later in the week that I’m supposed to just swallow it rather than actually chew. As a result of the unnecessary chewing, I think my first experience with foo-foo was a no-no. I’m looking forward to round two, though.

 

Gari reminds me a lot of oatmeal, a dish which, unfortunately, I’m not particularly fond of in the states. I have mixed feelings about gari: The taste of it while I chew is rather good, but the aftertaste when I swallow is something that will take some getting used to (I think the aftertaste has more to do with the type of milk I used, though). Gari is also another delicacy that I’ve tried just once; but that’s bound to change.

 

I’ll be traveling to Pujehun this week, and many of my colleagues told me that I would be eating a lot of gari out there, so it would probably behoove of me to get used to it sooner than later.

 

And finally, and more recently, I tried coconut jelly for the first time. This food is most peculiar and intriguing to me. I’ve never eaten anything like it where you first drink the water out of it and then eat the inner layer. And the taste-in-mouth versus aftertaste paradigm is almost the opposite of gari: The salty taste of the water in my mouth is evened out by the sweeter aftertaste. The bitter taste of the inner layer is something that feels strange for me, because I keep expecting it to be sweeter. Still, it’s one of the more fun experiences I’ve had with food in Salone.

 

I’m sure I’ll write one or two more columns on the food I will continue to try. But for now, I’m happy to say that I’ve enjoyed eating Sierra Leonean dishes and, as strange as this may sound, I think I can feel my tongue adjusting and getting stronger.