Saturday, September 27, 2008

Every Kitchen Needs a Mortar and Pestle

morter and pestal cc cbcastro The propensity of Africans to take whatever food they have, pound it into powder and mash it into some sort of playdough type blob never ceases to amaze me.

In Zambia, they did it with maize, sorghum, millet and cassava.  (All called nsima.)  In Nigeria, they do it with corn (somu), cassava (eba), yam (amala), wheat, plantains (fufu), beans (moin moin or akara), and even, rice!  Wheat is definitely my least favorite.

Today, I finally got to try moin moin; the bean version of blob.  It was really good.  Tasted like the carrots my mommy makes with potatoes when the family has pot roast.  Must be some similar spices in them.  At home, Mommy makes my carrots and potatoes in a separate dish so they don't get icky pig juice on them.  Here, Auntie made my moin moin separate, without the crayfish.  I'm so lucky to have wonderful people who make food just for me. :)  Thank you!

But I'd still like to know, how does one come up with this stuff?  I mean, who's like "oh, here's a tasty food!  I know, if we beat the crap out of it and mix it with water so we can play with it with our hands while eating, it'll taste even better!"?

P.S. I still use a spoon.

 

[Mortar and Pestle cc by-nc cbcastro from http://flickr.com/photos/cbcastro/406494866/]

3 comments:

Jeannie said...

Just an FYI - the pot roasts were beef, not pork. How does anyone come up with recipes for things? Sometimes you take what you have and experiment, I guess.

Anonymous said...

Can I just say that I LOVE reading your blog! It weakens the sting of law school boredom every time I read it and think "I know this person having these awesome experiences."

goldenrail said...

mommy: pig, cow, whatever, I don't eat it.
Cassie: thanks for the love! I'm glad you enjoy the blog :)