I promised a post about food and I am a man of my word. So! Let's get into it, shall we?
In a small village there is not a lot of variety for meals. Pretty much the chief dishes are:
Riz gras (Rice mixed with tomato paste and maybe some okra)
Riz sauce (Rice with vegetables and tomato sauce or peanut sauce)
Benga (Red beans and stewed onions)
Atteke (THE BEST. Shredded casava root with a vinegar sauce and fresh tomatoes and onions on top.)
Spaghetti (... not great. With tomato paste.)
Basically, people here like tomato paste. It's also possible to buy brochettes of beef, sheep, or goat and have them cooked on rubber mats. Those can be awesome, or full of bones, or make you sick. Careful. Also, certain restaurants can be convinced to make up new dishes or items. However, this is only possible during certain times of the year. Some sites only have two types of vegetables at any given time, IF that. But Sapone is a slightly bigger town and there's a supersized outdoors marche every third day and more things are available. For example, my main go-to for lunch offers a potato soup, or sandwiches with cucumbers, tomatoes, and avocados, among other things (fries too!). It's really boss but the place is so crowded no one goes there anymore. I'm looking forward to having more variety at my site and the chance to cook for myself.
For example! My family asked me to cook them American food and I freaked out. It's tough to cook having limited resources and no stove. However, I settled on making mac and cheese with bruschetta on garlic bread. Or, at least, the closest thing to it. I took Laughing Cow cheese wedges, powdered milk, oatmeal, salt, and water and made the cheese sauce to pour over macaroni. (The oatmeal made the sauce thicken.) I made 600g of macaroni to go with it and when it was done it was the greatest thing I have eaten here. I was able to cook over two small things with charcoal in them. I then took a frying pan and put that over some charcoal, dipped halved bread in oil, pressed some garlic into it, and roasted the bread a bit to make it crispy. My friend whipped up a batch of diced tomatoes, peppers, onions, and scallions with some lime juice for the bruschetta/salsa stuff. Thus, we put this on the garlic bread and ate it alongside the mac & cheese. Amazing. Incredible. The best.
I can make cookies and all sorts of stuff at site. I'm looking forward to that. Oh man, yes. But! I'm really hungry right now and Chez Val's is calling my name. Potato soup and half avocado sandwich, you're mine.
