Like true Southerns, everyone's first questions seems to be the most important one: How's the food? To be completely honest, it's fantastic! I tried to come to Africa with a completely open mind because I was thinking that I would be eating bugs and fish heads (which I actually did try) and rats and things of that sort. I have tried a few new things but everything I have tried is absolutely delicious.
Because the Gambia depends on tourism, they have tons of food and restaurants that cater to every palate. I eat lots of pizza and pasta, club sandwiches, fried chicken sandwiched (I still miss Chick-fil-A), hamburgers, Indian food and last night I had Chinese. The African food is also wonderful. They eat a ton of fish here because we are right on the ocean and these waters are largely under-fished so every fisherman catches a lot. (Dad you should give up on Smith Lake and come here!) You can eat fish and chips andy way you can dream. If there isn't fish in a dish than there are probably prawns or prawn sauce, which are ship. I have a friend at home that specializes in mercury intake, he would have a fit over how much fish is eaten here. But there is far less commercial pollution so these fish are not as dangerous to eat as fish at home.
A noticeable difference from home is that everything here is so fresh! I have some friends in Alabama who are from Africa, they never eat meat in the States because they say that it tastes wrong. It is so different here because it is killed in the morning and eaten for dinner. Nothing is ever frozen, shipped thousands of miles, or processed, like all of our food in the US. At home there is a movement to "Eat Locally." Here, you don't have a choice. The fruit is so delicious, banana, oranges, mangos etc. can be picked off trees everywhere you go. They don't use GMOs here (Genetically Modified Organisms that scientifically make our food grow faster and bigger that are herbicide and pesticide resistant etc.) so everything is smaller but is packed with a lot more flavor.
I have a small kitchen and mini-fridge, but the fridge doesn't usually work and its difficult to cook for 1 with out left-overs, so eat almost every meal out. (I do have powdered milk and cereal, long-lasting yougurt, cheese and crackers at home.) This time of year many, many restaurants are closed because there are no tourists and locals can't afford it. The restaurants that are open have super long menus but you have to pick out youtop 5 choices because they may not have the ingredients. As an extreme example, I went to an Italian restaurant the other day and they didn't have flour to make pizza! Begining in August, the restaurants and supermarkets will be closed all day due to required fasting in Ramadan. During that period people may not eat or drink while the sun is up, so all the places that sell food close down so as not to tempt anyone. People are known to get very irritable during this period and it sounds terrible. I have decided to go home in late July and am so happy that I'm going to miss Ramadan.
Food here is also very expensive if you don't eat rice every meal. The cheapest thing that I have found so far is tomato soup, which is $5-8, and I eat it almost every night for dinner. Its amazing how much policy in the US affects the rest of the world. The US subsidizes farmers to not grow food, buys corn to convert to ethanol, and buys excess crops to send to other countries. Each of these practices effects the natural economics of the food market and drives up food prices all around the world. All around teh world there has been a food crisis, not because there is not enough food, but because there is plenty of food sitting around and nobody can afford to buy it. There has been a little bit of talk about rising food prices in
the United States, but that has been astronomical to so many other countries, and Gambia is certainly not excluded.
The locals eat a lot of rice. Rice for breakfast, lunch and dinner. It's white rice usuallyu accompanied by some type of tomato or pepper sauce and of course, fish. I have a friend that grew up in a family of 11 and he said hkis family ate on less than $1 a day be eating rice and catching their own fish, squirrel or rabbit to eat with it.
I for one, am looking foward to returing home to cheap Mexican food and Jack's milk shakes! Have a great day!
Because the Gambia depends on tourism, they have tons of food and restaurants that cater to every palate. I eat lots of pizza and pasta, club sandwiches, fried chicken sandwiched (I still miss Chick-fil-A), hamburgers, Indian food and last night I had Chinese. The African food is also wonderful. They eat a ton of fish here because we are right on the ocean and these waters are largely under-fished so every fisherman catches a lot. (Dad you should give up on Smith Lake and come here!) You can eat fish and chips andy way you can dream. If there isn't fish in a dish than there are probably prawns or prawn sauce, which are ship. I have a friend at home that specializes in mercury intake, he would have a fit over how much fish is eaten here. But there is far less commercial pollution so these fish are not as dangerous to eat as fish at home.
A noticeable difference from home is that everything here is so fresh! I have some friends in Alabama who are from Africa, they never eat meat in the States because they say that it tastes wrong. It is so different here because it is killed in the morning and eaten for dinner. Nothing is ever frozen, shipped thousands of miles, or processed, like all of our food in the US. At home there is a movement to "Eat Locally." Here, you don't have a choice. The fruit is so delicious, banana, oranges, mangos etc. can be picked off trees everywhere you go. They don't use GMOs here (Genetically Modified Organisms that scientifically make our food grow faster and bigger that are herbicide and pesticide resistant etc.) so everything is smaller but is packed with a lot more flavor.
I have a small kitchen and mini-fridge, but the fridge doesn't usually work and its difficult to cook for 1 with out left-overs, so eat almost every meal out. (I do have powdered milk and cereal, long-lasting yougurt, cheese and crackers at home.) This time of year many, many restaurants are closed because there are no tourists and locals can't afford it. The restaurants that are open have super long menus but you have to pick out youtop 5 choices because they may not have the ingredients. As an extreme example, I went to an Italian restaurant the other day and they didn't have flour to make pizza! Begining in August, the restaurants and supermarkets will be closed all day due to required fasting in Ramadan. During that period people may not eat or drink while the sun is up, so all the places that sell food close down so as not to tempt anyone. People are known to get very irritable during this period and it sounds terrible. I have decided to go home in late July and am so happy that I'm going to miss Ramadan.
Food here is also very expensive if you don't eat rice every meal. The cheapest thing that I have found so far is tomato soup, which is $5-8, and I eat it almost every night for dinner. Its amazing how much policy in the US affects the rest of the world. The US subsidizes farmers to not grow food, buys corn to convert to ethanol, and buys excess crops to send to other countries. Each of these practices effects the natural economics of the food market and drives up food prices all around the world. All around teh world there has been a food crisis, not because there is not enough food, but because there is plenty of food sitting around and nobody can afford to buy it. There has been a little bit of talk about rising food prices in
the United States, but that has been astronomical to so many other countries, and Gambia is certainly not excluded.The locals eat a lot of rice. Rice for breakfast, lunch and dinner. It's white rice usuallyu accompanied by some type of tomato or pepper sauce and of course, fish. I have a friend that grew up in a family of 11 and he said hkis family ate on less than $1 a day be eating rice and catching their own fish, squirrel or rabbit to eat with it.
I for one, am looking foward to returing home to cheap Mexican food and Jack's milk shakes! Have a great day!
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