So I'm finishing up the five sense posts. I figured I've
been here for almost nine months and while I may not have seen, smelled,
touched, tasted, or heard everything there is in this country I'm ready to
report in on my final two senses and give my two senses (cents).
Tastes are a miraculous thing in Senegal because they can be
absolutely wonderful and make your day or they can ruin it. Many of the
following are very subjective.
The taste of oil. Oil (vegetable mainly) is used in many of
the rice dishes in Senegal. It's almost a food staple, much like ketchup is for
me in the States. The national dish in Senegal is called Chebb u Jenn (in
Wolof) and is rice cooked in oil (yes you read that right) with fish, and very cooked vegetables. The rice is also cooked in these spice cubes
that are very similar to the bouillon we use in soup stock. It is a dish that I
can barely stomach, but not just because of the oil. It's a lunch dish here
in Botou usually 2-3 times per week. Oil also shows up in beignets, doughnuts,
and fatayas. All of these are fried goodies that you can find anywhere. Women
sell them on the street and people make them in villages to sell as well.
Beignets are fried in oil to the point that, like the oily rice, you can squeeze
the product and watch the oil come off. Doughnuts (we call them "bon bon") here, are less greasy but more doughy and still fried in oil. I like these better and
I think they taste like apple cider doughnuts from Vermont. That is if you hop
on one foot and tilt your head to the side. Fatayas are dough filled triangles
or half moon shaped with fish and vegetables. Sometimes a fish bone or twelve
and fried.
After oil there are peanuts. Peanut butter is not eaten the
way we eat peanut butter in America. In fact when I describe what we do with
peanut butter to people here they raise their eyebrows and wrinkle their nose.
Peanut butter is made into a peanut sauce (and not like the peanut sauce you
might dip your chicken satay into). This peanut sauce has more bouillon,
sometimes tomato paste and tomato powder, sometimes baobab leaves, and
sometimes fish or meat. It's served over white rice and in Bambara we call it
naa jii, or tiga dege which just means peanut butter, with name variations if
there are different things in it. In Wolof it's called maffe. This dish I quite
enjoy. As long as my spoonful has some hot pepper and not bones. Another taste
is our "couscous" which is made out of corn. We pound the kernels and
then soak them in water. The corn is then brought to a machine where it is
ground very finely. Then it is sifted into two different grain sizes. One is
made into basi, a couscous like texture that some volunteers describe as sand.
It is then served also with naa jii but a lighter version. Sometimes this will
have moringa leaves, beans leaves, or cabbage in it. Sometimes it will contain
fish or beans!. But most of the time it is plain "peanut water" as we volunteers love to refer to
it as (and is the direct translation).
The other diet staple is breakfast. We call it mooni and it
is basically sweet mini matzo balls in a porridge. The finest grain from the
corn is sifted to basically a flour and then mixed with water to make little
balls that are then boiled in water (sugar added) and we drink it with large
spoons like ladles. Another frequent taste is that of sugar. Because most of
Senegal is Muslim and because many/most Muslims do not drink alcohol they drink
sugar instead. In Senegal it comes in the form of attaya (thé) which is a
strong green tea boiled (unlike how your heart healthy father knows you should
steep green tea) with sugar and mint or basil or the leaves of a lemon tree. When
the Senegalese don't drink this bitterly sweet tea they get headaches. And
complain. I've noticed the withdrawal myself. The tea is not good (at least in my
opinion) but it's not bad and I usual don't refuse. These are all food tastes.
Food is not very varied here in Senegal. Oil comes in breakfast sandwiches
where eggs are cooked to form a whole new beast. While raised culturally Jewish
I was accustomed to eating a food's weight in oil in the form of latkes. But
when I realized that this once a year treat was actually making my stomach hurt
I quickly asked my dad to make sure we had lox and brisket instead for
Hanukkah. This stomach pain resulting from oil came back with revenge in the
form of oily rice. And while I am polite I eat a bit of the national dish when
served but the oil always brings me back to my dad's delicious latkes.
The other taste that I can't help but ignore is that of dust
from tracks driving by as I'm biking. Exhaust and dust are my delicious.
Although if given the option between exhaust and dust and oil I might have to
c
onsider. The smell and taste that unfortunately comes into your mouth of burning trash is also seriously disgusting. Most of the trash burned has plastic in it. And as we put it here in Peace Corps. Burning plastic leads to us breathing and tasting cancer, something most of us try and avoid.
