What are the weirdest things you have eaten during your African travels? Tell me where and in what circumstances you came across any 'weird cuisine' (even if you didn't eat it, it's OK).
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I ate camel, after seeing it slaughtered on a beach in
Nouakchott, Mauritania. Whilst looking around a market in
Cameroon for some fresh beef I saw stalls selling dried
monkeys (eventually found the beef, thank god!). In a
restaurant in Bangui I had a choice between fried chicken
or boa-constrictor. I went for the chicken because you had
to order 3 days ahead for the boa. In Kano a restaurant had
a very curious menu - pig parts, chicken parts, cow parts.
I don't know what parts, but decided on the omelette.I
tried a bit of everything at Carnivores in Nairobi. I lived
in France for 4 months last year and ate snails and frog
legs. In the Northern Territory, Australia I tried tortoise
and sting-ray and goanna. But there's nothing like the
McDonalds in Cairo after a few weeks of felafels.....
Mel, I have to say I have had a few of those same
experiences, (Zebra, Hartebeest at Carnivores!) and I must
agree on the McDonalds in Cairo - damn that Big Mac was
tasting fine after Fushari and felafel for weeks on end!
However, the weirdest thing I ever ate was a winged
termite. See, once a year or something they grow wings to
do their little termite migration to anotther mound, then
the wings drop off. Well, in Malawi, I was drinking my
coffee (Africafe, of course) and I realized I had swallowed
one of thos little critters - thing is, with the wings on
they are very long (an inch or two), and I had already
swallowed it before I realized. Gross.
prawns. in retrospect, they're not called "the cockroaches
of the sea" for nothing!
Seriously..Mopani worms. Nothing special.
Probably Hippo Biltong. (Pretty Kak.)
My mother ate a giant, deep-fried grub while on a boat
travelling down the Congo river in Zaire. (I think she
did it just so she could boast about it later...) No thanks!
I've seen bugs for sale (as food) here and there across
Africa. A kid at a remote bus station in Eastern Zim was
selling deep-fried beetles in paper cones as a snack, as
they do with peanuts. I've also had frog legs and pigeons.
A restaurant in Vietnam had cages full of snakes and
weirder animals. Right here in Canada I've eaten potato
chip sandwiches, but I guess that's not very exotic. But
man, that McDonald's in Cairo, after almost a year in
Africa- and not a speck of rice in it!
OK, here we go, I'm in a rush, no time to write details.
But the African cuisine is really interesting, not always
tasty but interesting.
Boa-snake in Brazzaville/Congo
Porcupine in YaoundΘ/Cameroon
Curry Crocodile in Vic Falls/Zimbabwe
Mopane worms in Joburg/S.A.
Wild game Thomson Gazell and other in Kenya
╧'m not proud of any of it, but it's interesting.
Enjoy the best continent in the world!
Cheers
my mum's attempt at Easter spinich and ricotta pie - it just didn't work so we had fish'n'chips instead. She tried hard!!
when we went to mocambique, we took this travel guide which happened to have some local fav recipes. so we decided to make one called 'chwambo' (if i remember correctly). we went out and bought the ingredients from one of the markets, and by the time we got back it was getting dark. we made the stew-thing, and ate it. there was still some left in the pot in the morning. it was bright purple! and i mean bright!
i also ate fried croc steaks back in my meat eating days. i found it very salty.
that's all.
i was in a restaurant between j'burg and pretoria called the
train. the dishes they serve are anything between worms and
elephant steak, like zebra, hippo rhino, brains, giraffe,
baby shark etc etc. and most of them taste even great.
70 rand unlimited food.
think about it.
have a nice meal pieter
Pigeon in Egypt. When in Somalia, I ate some beef tounge
in a tomato sauce. Not too bad, actually. I ate wierder
stuff in Mexico...oven toasted agave worms (tastes like
Cheetos), cactus (de-spined), and "Mexican Caviar"--worm
eggs. The taste was sort of like butter, but the texture
was absolutely revolting. There was definitely some
"cerveza" consumed that day...
In Benin I enjoyed nearly all the food that was served to me,
except the agouti stew - this giant rat is considered a
valuable game meat in Benin but I found it very
uninteresting. One strange thing is that this kind of food is
by no means esthetic, most of the time it's downright ugly.
And sometimes it doesn't even taste very good at first bite.
But you do take a liking to it, especially when you realize
(as I did) how healthy, light and beneficient to the body it
is. Never and nowhere did I ever find a diet that was so
digestible and energy-giving. I think it's very well
balanced, with all those various starches, tasty sauces and
especially the wonderful hot pepper or Africa, which is a
real power food and good for you (it proved very good for
me). As for weird food, I've had the most gooey sauce in the
world: you could dip your finger in it and lift it above your
head and the thread didn't break. It contained a powder made
from the kernel of some wild fruit ("pomme sauvage") and that
was the gooey factor. It was a lovely sauce though, nice and
hot, red with palm oil, with pieces of goat meat and hairy
crab legs sticking out. I sure got higher in my African
friends' esteem when they saw me eating this with my hands
and dipping lumps of yam paste into it. I also had delicious
antelope stew once. It took me some time to really like the
akassa (fermented white cornmeal paste steamed in banana
leaves) but now I miss it.
One more thing. I can't believe what I read here once of
twice, from American travellers who said how relieved they
were to eat at a MacDonalds in Cairo after staying in Africa.
I just can't believe this. Oh God. I'd rather eat broiled
termites (no python meat though, the python is sacred to me
since I've been to Benin and really loved the place).
1) I'm not American
2) I have to admit that going to McDonalds is usually an
act of absolute desperate starvation. Maybe I should try
and find some python around home.
Sorry, Mel, but I must add that it makes the mystery even
more opaque. And I wasn't referring to your message only.
I can hardly believe it's an act of absolute starvation,
especially in the country of foul mudammas and so close to
couscous. If finding a MacDonalds is such a relief, why
travel in the first place? They're all over the world. Last
year, on the piazza del Panteone in Rome, I heard an American
lady ask her son who was returning from the nearby MacDonalds
while she had been waiting at a terrace cafΘ: "Does it taste
exactly the same as in the States?" He said "Yes." She said
"Good". In that respect, travelling in Africa was *my*
relief.
We were treated to goat rectum.
Unforgettable
After some time in Africa and seeing the wierd but wonderful
recipes available, I have to say the most discusting
stomach churning thing I saw anyone eat was at an arsey late
night cafe called cats pyjamas in Jo'burg of all places.
Marrowbone jelly, from the bone. Now that is vile.
APparently its trendy. 'Oh'
Also, Biltong has got to be the most discusting concept of
all time ever. Have you seen how they make that stuff?
Gross. Not as bad as McDonalds but.
Who og you have experienced
- ugali amde of sorghum and kasawa (mihogu) Maniok)
- funish - ugali - of kasawa
- cook banana with duch
- cook goat and rice
delicios
go to the no toureist places
the local restaurents and eat
delicious, spicy, tasty
Take the restaurent next to your guide
Y
My McDonalds reference was a bit tongue in cheek. I did
also eat some gooey sticky green stuff in Garoua Boulai -
Cameroon. I still don't know what it was but was sick of my
own cooking. Being married to a Frenchman and having lived
in France I actually like the French attitude to food -
that the local cuisine is part of the adventure. My
husbands' family were most worried about him moving to
Australia until we assured them that we did have our own
cheeses, wines, and although you can eat kangaroo, we
actually eat chicken, beef and lamb.
Goat-stew in Gambia. That dish had the taste of how dirty
goats smells...
Hi Mel, the sticky gooey green stuff you ate in Cameroon was
probably gumbo (okra) powder, or ndole (if it looked really
bright green that was it) or melokhia (it's best known as a
North-African food but I think it's eaten all over Africa).
Now the French attitude to food sure is very peculiar, and
it's just the way you describe it. But still I know many
people here in Paris who wouldn't touch some of the stuff I
ate in Benin.Actually my tolerance level is easily located in
spite of all that I said; the other day in the African market
in Paris I saw a whole box of dried-smoked worms and realized
that I wouldn't go so far as trying them.
I once ate warthog in Zimbabwe - does that count?
I once ate a roten, diaherria giving, burger here in the US.
Don't believe me? Try white castle! So much for a stomach
disturbing meal. However, I could never forget the Tcheb
(red rice) in Senegal, the fufu (mashed banana plantain)
with peanut butter soup in Ghana, and the attieke (dried
yam) with fish in Cote d'Ivoire. It changes from the
disgusting sbarro pizza with all the health problems it
gives, and most of all, it's memorable.
In the legal sense of this thread, this fits..I ate my
first BigMac in 1987 in Germany. One of the 'prides' (?) of
BM'ers is that they are the same the world over. Anyway...I
was starving, and that was the nearest food. I nearly
puked. That was BURGER??? urrrgh. Anyway...since democracy
arrived, MacD's are everywhere. (I never knew there was a
dark side to democracy, or that there was a good side to
sanctions!)I've since eaten 2 BM's, on the basis that
everyone should be given the benefit of the doubt.I am
going to have to be REALLY, REALLY hungry the next time I
eat one of those things! (Nice fries & shakes tho.)
On holiday in Zimbabwe in 1994 my mother was brave enough
to try stewed Kudu (a type of antelope) at the Hwange
Safari Lodge. She said it tasted quite nice, but felt quite
ill for much of the next day.
That gooey green stuff is also fondly known as "snot sauce"
-- especially if it's the florescent green okra-based
version with dried fish bits and fish paste and big hunks of
fresh fish and lumps of other eye-ball sized nummies
blurting out that you scoop up with the dried yam
powder, reconstituted and steamed in Manioc leaves, paste
and watch slowly drip and dangle from your right three
fingers with the threads not breaking until you bite them
off with your two front teeth and slowly feel the slime
slithering down the back of your throat as you try not to
retch a titch and swallow the unidentifiable thingies
whole...gulp!
~
you do get used to it, though!(and a lot of potable water
helps, too)
Those winged termites come into season in Rwanda and are a
raosted treat for school kids and silly mzungas like me who
would eat anything to try it once...they're kind of crunchy
when properly done, a bit of pilipili (aka periperi down
south) does 'em some good, and they're quite fat-free and
protein-heavy if you're looking for a grand beer snack!
~
Also, the Carnivore does have a fine selection of meats, but
the Kudu and Oryx and Ostrich you find throughout other
countries and restaurants is usually better. Don't forget
Joe's in Windhoek for roasted selections, and the open
market in Oshikati for roasted mopane worms. But I just miss
roasted kid goat...these little Rwandan spiced and
sauced kebabs...or pilipili roast talapia (with
the squishiest eyeballs)...yum...sigh!
Well i've had some of the lesser delicacies mentioned
above (Kudu is delicious) and did not have the guts for
others (Mopani worms no-no) but I have to say the most
repugnant food (if you can call it that) has to be Marmite
how can you eat that?