Tastes from afar

We saw them about four weeks ago. Nicely big and green. Virgo and I looked at each other, smiled and decided to take them. Since then we've watched them eagerly grow to maturity, every now and then pinching a feel to check how close we were getting. Last week, I was ready to give up, but then, as the snow melted away, so did the green colour, which gave way for a golden yellow brown shade. And today little Em, Ghana-girl to the bone, was the one who insisted it was time. After a light seasoning and fry, she devoured just about all of it in a few minutes (I swear I only got a bite!), and I don't blame her. Plantain; ripe, fried plantain has never tasted that good!

Give, give, give!

What is the most fun part of celebrating Christmas? Well, I guess for a Christian, it is the birth of Jesus, but more generally in this modern world, it is the spirit of giving that signifies the coming holidays.

Today has been all about giving. I had a fruitful meeting with some inspirational people and discussions on how we could collaborate for a good cause. Then I took the family through town, passing Musikhjälpens Christmas tent which is raising money for girls' right to education all over the world.

I love giving at Christmas, or any time of year for that matter. In Sweden, one can offer money to Musikhjälpen, or donate to the Swedish Church in its mission to combat World Hunger. ActionAid has various options of giving to those less fortunate, or why not help Medicins sans Frontières work against malaria and other diseases.

In Ghana one could choose to support a charitable organisation, like Give Ghana, or even better, head to your local orphanage with some food, clothes or toys. You cannot imagine how overjoyed the children are over clothes that you may consider out of date and old.

In the spirit of giving, what better song than this fundraising giant:

Water, water everywhere... 3

Seems this is an endless topic of discussion. It was with interest I've followed the water situation in Ghana, at times very happy to be here, away from any issues of water shortage. That was until I saw this: a notice informing us that today, between 13 and 15 they will turn off our water for maintenance works.

Two hours may seem like a little, but the scary part is the sentence that says, "these times are estimates only, the period may be prolonged without further notice". Like Virgo remarked, "This is Tema, isn't it?".

Needless to say, I've made plans for us to be out at the time, we'll be doing such exciting things as... the weekly food shopping!

Of course, today is Lucia, so before shopping, we'll make a quick stop in Nordstan for Virgo and Em to experience a bit of Lucia celebrations. So for you, today's Christmas song is a glimpse of how Lucia is celebrated.

How to gain 4kg in 4 days

No it's not a mistake, I'm going to show you how it is possible to put on four kilos in as many days.

1. Go on a low carb regime (it's not a diet, a lifestyle change!) for a bit over a month and lose 6 kg.

2. Fly to your home town (in my case, Gothenburg) with all the foods you've been missing for the past 18 months or so.

Here's the full confession of what I did/ate:

On the evening of arrival, eat barbecue (sugar!) chicken and potato salad at 21:30

Start the next day with Lingongrova bread and Herrgardsost (I have a lovely brother, Mr. T who knows exactly what I like and stocked his fridge with those things.

Meet friends for a "fika" at a cafe and eat a brown bread roll with ham and cheese AND a blueberry pie with custard.

For dinner, eat a scrumptious Cappricciosa pizza (well, 3/4 of it, Mr. T's son L and my Em took their share of it).

Start the next day with Lingongrova (brown bread) and Herrgardsost (cheese) again. Then meet a friend and have a semla. I have to confess that I didn't even enjoy it, the sugar high had reached an uncontrollable level by then.
Semla:


Meet another friend, just an hour later, for Ballerina biscuits at her flat. Then, two hours later, head to another friend's flat for more delicious pastries, seriously rich stuff, then a potato and pot roast dinner, then ice cream!

Ballerina:


Finally get back into low carb mode and have a boiled egg breakfast before heading out on Saturday. Spend most of the day, not eating, then get home and have a late lunch of...another pizza! Then spend the evening with a childhood friend at home, sharing a bottle of red wine and a pack of Ballerina Kladdkaka biscuits (basically Swedish Oreos).

Sunday, both Em and I wake up with colds and spend most of the day eating oranges and drinking nyponsoppa (rosehip soup), but also manage to squeeze down some jollof, pork chops and a delicious salad.

On the flight to London, Monday morning, I can feel that my trousers are a bit tight around the waist, but you know what? It was well worth it. For those four days of unrestricted pleasure, I do it again and again!

And the best thing? The house we're staying in here in London is so cold, it seems I've lost all those gained kilos just from trying to stay warm and not having enough energy to go to the kitchen and eat!

Sushi lunch in Accra

There's been a rumour going round town (well, my circle of friends) all year. With no real facts to support it, it was beginning to sound like an urban myth. Is there really a place in Osu that serves sushi at lunchtime? If so where? It got to a point where none of us could figure out who actually said it first, where we could find out more and whether there really was any truth to the rumour.

The reason for our desperation? Ever since Noble House stopped serving sushi, as far as I know, the only sushi restaurant in central Accra (not to be confused with Accra Central which incudes Makola and its surrounding areas) is Monsoon. Its sushi restaurant opens at 7pm leaving those of us who can't be in Osu at that time, with no where at all to find sushi.

Anyways, about two weeks ago, Dee told me that she had heard that the lunch sushi joint was above Tantra, and since I'd been sushi starved for months, it only took a few days before I was there, having sushi with La Baselette, before she left Ghana once again.

The restaurant is called 3121, or something similar, for some reason the name has escaped me. It is above Tantra (the eurotechno nightclub), down the side road between Penta Hotel and Barclays on Oxford street. There's a Chinese restaurant in the same yard...but its name also vanished from my memory.

The verdict?
The food was good, tasty, but the rice wasn't as well prepared as Monsoon's. Everything was about 1 or 2 cedis more expensive than Monsoon, but there seemed to be more options available.

The interior was neat although the decor seemed heavily inspired by Memoirs of a Geisha (including actual promotional pictures from the movie), which was a bit weird.

Now, I think I've told you all you need to know, go taste it for yourselves and bon appetit!

By the way, for you other foodians out there, there seems to be a new website coming out that will be of interest to us, Eat out Ghana.

Sitting at the centre of the world

So much to write about but I am oh so tired, so for now I will just mention my quick stop to the centre of the world. After a week that wasn't half bad, with enough time to relax, reflect, exercise and clean, this Saturday made a lovely weekend day. Lunch at the Poetress',scrumptious as always, consisting of jollof with squid, deliciously sauteed mushrooms and quickfried spinach with sundried tomatoes. From there Em and I met up with Virgo and roamed around town for a bit, then headed back to Tema with a necessary takeaway pack of wakye from Katawodieso (see how easily I can describe my whole life with food?!).

(Picture of Ave Maria borrowed from mokocharlie.com)
Then we spontaneously decided to head to Ave Maria (formerly Tema Beach Club, I think). Somehow it was so rejuvenating and energy boosting to look out at the sea and be able to tell Em, "look, we're at the centre of the world!".

After that short trip of about thirty minutes, we headed home and ate our wakye. After putting Em to bed, I sat down to work on an agreement that I ought to have worked on much earlier in the week and couldn't help but feel a bit sorry for myself for working on a Saturday evening when I was so tired. And still, my little visit to Ave Maria reminded me that the world really is my oyster, anything is possible!

With that thought, I am going to read a chapter or two of Eat, Pray, Love, then sleep!

*Ave Maria is not technically the centre of the world, but Ghana and specifically Tema is the closest land to the centrepoint of the world, and since the Meridian grid is just a few metres from Ave Maria, that's our little reminder anytime we Temaites need to feel special.

Back...for now

Hm I made one little comment in support of Tetekai's complaints about Vodafone and suddenly I was cut off for two weeks. Personal vendetta, anyone? Now I'm back, who knows for how long...

If you see short posts from me with no pictures or links, it means I'm attempting to blog from my phone as I don't think I can handle another blog abstinence. It's been frustrating having so much to say and nowhere to write it. Luckily I know better than to attempt going to an internet cafe with a daughter as headstrong, active and loud as my Em (learnt that the hard way at Vodafone in Cantonments), but hopefully the phone will save me when Vodafone tries to shut me down the next time.

For now I am going to enjoy my delicious light supper of German Rye bread (from Evergreen in Tema) with Mozzarella (Maxmart Tema), some slices of tomato, chopped garlic and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil. With that, a 'cocktail' of Cranberry juice and tonic water. Mmmmm!

Happy Friday!

Smollenskys Accra

Yesterday I had lunch at Smollenskys. I hadn't heard of the name until Afua started going on about it a few months ago, but apparently it's a known chain of bar/restaurants in London which has now arrived in our very own Accra. In Accra, you'll find it at the top of the Kosmos/ProCredit building, opposite Silver Star tower.

I went there with the Poetress and had already been told that there was no set menu, you basically request and see whether the kitchen can offer what you want. I had the seafood plate with veg (yes, I have finally banished most carbs so I rejected the potatoes, yam chips and rice that was offered). I got a mix of fish, squid and prawns, unfortunately served in a creamy sauce. Unfortunately, because I think the seafood flavours would have been better presented in a crisp stir fry or grill, but fortunately the creamy sauce was delicious! The Poetress also seemed to enjoy her tuna with half a portion of jollof and half yam chips.

It was refreshing to sit in a quiet, breezy rooftop joint, but of course, as soon as I uttered the words "what do they do when it rains?", it started drizzling!

A new local delicacy?

In the past few days two things have had me in disgusted shock. First, a blog post written by the Poet. That is, before the shock released and I laughed til I cried (poor Em was consoling her mummy, not realising I wasn't actually sad).

Yesterday, however, I heard something even more shocking. As I was driving in Ringway Estates with Joy playing in the background, the news reader suddenly mentioned that a man had recently found a g-string in his kenkey!

I don't know, my mind is filled with so many questions, how, why, whaaaaat?! But really and truly, I don't think I want an answer to any of my many queries (was the g-string new or old, clean or...worn, why and how were underwear and food so close to each other that they'd get mixed up, etc, etc), because each question just leads me to shudder more than the last.

I just thank my lucky stars most of my food is prepared at home and kenkey happens to be one of the few Ghanaian dishes I don't eat.

Nasty surprises

I'm having a bit of a rough week. Too many things are happening at once and I could really use a moment of peace to enjoy the fresh sea air around me, but no such luck. Please excuse me for already failing to uphold my new year's resolutions.

In the mean time, I'll leave you with two horrid experiences I had this weekend in my beloved Tema. I went with my mum and Em to Usave (a Shoprite affiliate) in Community 1. On the way there I kept raving that this is the life - a nice breezy drive, good music blasting and Tema's organised (but potholed) roads. As we went through what was my local supermarket when Evergreen was to pricey and before Maxmart made it to Tema, I suddenly heard my mum yelp, then scream: a rat! Since I have a severe rat phobia, I lost all calm and started running through the shop, wheezing "excuse me, excuse me!" as I tried to make my way out as soon as possible, suddenly feeling very hot with a racing heart.

Once out and able to breathe again, my mum informed me it was actually a mouse, running over some tins just where she was about to reach out and take something. (Imagine that, reaching out for a tin of sweetcorn and landing a mouse in your hand. *shudder*).

It took a while to recover but by the next morning, I was better and started to prepare my lovely scrambled egg Sunday breakfast. As I cracked a second egg into a bowl, a smell filled our kitchen, and as I looked down I saw flaky, runny egg white and, wait for it, a b-l-a-c-k egg yolk!!! (I really do wish I had taken a picture but I was too shocked, instead, I'm thinking happy thoughts and give you a picture of sunset over East Legon).


Lesson learnt, be observant of where you shop and what you eat. Have a wonderful week, keep me in your happy thoughts.

Newcomers

Following Kajsa's lead, I too must recommend a new drink. Like with all other things, it's a bit exciting when there's something new in town to taste, try or visit. For me, the latest drink you'll find in my fridge, is Guinness new product: Alvaro. Available in two flavours, Pear and Pineapple, I can tell you that the pear flavour is scrumptious, taste very similar to Swedish Pear cider! The Pineapple flavour I'm sure is lovely too, I'm just not a big fan of pineapple flavoured things (except the fruit itself!).


Another newcomer in town is Lara Mart, located where Sotrek used to be, opposite Bywel's in Osu. It's nice to have another option to Koala in the area, the shop is well stocked, has nice neat aisles, a good meat counter and even stocks Apple Tango!


Customer service in Ghana is a whole topic on its own, but at Laramart I realised the best thing about it: Here, customer service is honest, not falsely friendly or giving well-rehearsed answers. As I drove up to Laramart, just to ask for directions to Sotrek, the security guard happily gave me directions to his employer's competitor and when asked whether Laramart actually had its own meat counter, he said: "yes, but I think Sotrek's is better"! (In my opinion, Laramart's turned out to be better.)

I decided to check out the new supermarket anyway and I was happily surprised. One staffmember approached me, was very helpful without being too forward, but as I made my way to the till, he asked "how do you find our prices, quite expensive isn't it?)!

I love the honesty! However, in both the guard's and the shop attendant's case I think they were wrong. The meat counter was good and the prices, although not cheap, were in the same range as Maxmart, Koala and Shoprite.

Tottenham, towels and Twi

Hmmm, the past two days I've made the same mistake and can only come to one conclusion: hungry babies are extremely difficult to bath! Apart from constantly wriggling about, they try to drink the bath water (yuck) and eat their towel.


Our move from Kent into London (well, the outskirts of it) has made me feel like I'm getting closer to Ghana. As a south London gal, I know there are huge Ghanaian communities in Tooting, Streatham, Norbury and most of the Croydon boroughs, but it seems the North is housing even more Ghanaians! Here in Tottenham, a short walk took me past the Golden Stool (restaurant/club/pub) and Yaw's Salon. Wherever I go, if I don't hear Twi being spoken, it's because the people are speaking Ga! And at Tottenham Hale station a ticket attendant actually recognised Virgo and called out one of their party cheers, I tell you, it was strangely surreal!

Either way, it's good to know that if need be, I can most certainly find some abenkwan or kelewele just around the corner.

Ma fe wo paa!

I'm missing home paa. So many things have led to this: travelling further south by leaving Sweden for England, hearing Twi all over the place when out and about in London, but most of all, after a fully Ghanaian day yesterday, I've got Ghana and only Ghana on my mind.

The day was spent parading baby to all the relatives. We started off with lunch at the Baba Foundation in Norbury, a Ghanaian Community Centre. My eyes teared up as I looked out over the wakye, jollof, banku&tilapia, guinea fowl and red red that I hadn't seen in so long. The feast, which also featured a starter of fried yam and kelewele was topped of with Malt. The only thing that made the day even better than that meal was getting confirmation over and over again, both there and at the cousin's house in South Norwood that we later visited, that my daughter is the most beautiful baby in the world (as if I didn't know!)

Today, I realised that Marks & Spencer in Bluewater probably had a 60% Ghanaian customer base as everywhere I turned I could hear twi being spoken. Then, getting home to my dad's place, where traditional highlife was blasted as the scents of kontomire in the making wafted in to the sitting room, my heart began to beat faster and I couldn't help but exclaim:

I MISS GHANA!

Vegetarian in Ghana?

Paul McCartney, a known vegetarian has gotten together with other celebs to promote having at least one meat-free day a week. Apparently, meat-production amounts to 18% of the world's gas emissions so if we all chose to stay off meat for just one day a week these emissions could be drastically reduced.

I read the article and considered how this could be effectively promoted in Ghana. It wouldn't be a problem for me, I could have a normal breakfast, porridge and fruits, spinach and feta pie for lunch and greek pasta salad for dinner.

But how to do this with our traditional meals? At first it seemed quite difficult, how do I eat my fufu and groundnut soup without chicken, my yam and abenkwan without fish? What is Red Red without fish (just Red?), jollof without chicken and rice without meat/corned beef stew?

But on further thought, we have quite a number of lighter vegetarian dishes/snacks. How about Kofi Brokeman (roasted plantain with groundnuts), kelelwele (fried, spicy plantain) or is anything as good as fried yam with fresh green pepper?! And I guess for one day a week we can all sacrifice and have our Red Red just Red, our Wakye with only Kosya (egg) and Abenkwan with beans instead (try it at Agbamami, it's yummy). Add to the Kontomire without meat, replace the meat/fish in your Garden Egg stew with...more Garden Eggs and swap the corned beef stew for egg stew and voila, you have quite a few dishes to play with. I'll definitely give it a try when I get back.

The Ghanaian Swede obsesses about Swedish foods when in Ghana and writes about Ghanaian dishes whilst in Sweden... why is the grass always greener on the other side?

The night before Christmas

I made the best decision this weekend: I decided to go to Ridge Church's carols night, even though I had no one to go with. It may sound trivial but I blame my Swedish upbringing, it takes a lot for me to get up and go somewhere without anyone accompanying me, in London I could never understand (but I did admire) my housemate Miss Valentine who'd easily go to the movies by herself.

Anyway, as usual I digress! The reason it was a good decision? It wiped away all my 'the EC/credit crunch stole Christmas' bitterness and re-vitalised my usual Christmas spirit. So yesterday I met my uncle at the airport to pick up the Swedish goodies my dad had sent with him. I've also managed to stock up on gas (for the cooker), water, drinks and food for the holiday season, while still trying to get some work done. This evening has been spent brewing mulled wine and baking lussekatter (saffron rolls) and soft gingerbread cake (and of course tasting them too).


Tomorrow morning, we'll start early, rolling meatballs, cooking the ham, etcetera, etcetera. Oh did I forget to mention that in Sweden we celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve?

And naturally, growing up in a Ghanaian family, I get the best of both worlds, with Julbord- the Swedish Christmas feast on Christmas Eve, then Turkey, stuffing and all the rest on Christmas day.

Best of all, and unexpectedly, the 28 December elections has created the perfect solemn mood for a simple, quiet family celebration, the way I love spending Christmas. Now I'm just hoping the politicians decide to cool it for a bit so that Virgo manages to join us in our first Christmas in our common home (last year's was spent having delicious dinner at Fiesta Royale, really recommend it, although very expensive).

Merry Christmas to you all!!!

P.S. I promise to document our Ghanaian-Swedish julbord...if I remember to take pictures!

Food for thought

The whole morning I've been longing for, no, obsessing about a Swedish breakfast. Not the quick on-my-way-to-work yoghurt and sandwich, but a full on summer holiday style breakfast. Googled a few images, as if to try and satisfy myself (it didn't) but it reminded me of what I already knew I was missing. (Picture stolen randomly from this blog)

Of course, the picture only gives an idea of a sample breakfast. Mine would have O'boy rather than coffee
, there would of course be boiled egg on knäckebröd with Kalles Kaviar
(then again I have loads of Kalles Kaviar here so I don't miss that too much), the cheese would be Herrgårdsost
or Prästost, the margarine Lätt o Lagom
rather than Lätta and of course there would be fil there as well, possibly a bowl with frozen blueberries sprinkled in it.

All this reminiscing made me not enjoy my would-be delicious brunch of sliced avocado, tomatoes, boiled egg, tuna mix and crackers.

Anyway, it won't be long now before I finally get to enjoy such a breakfast again!

Food for thought.

Mmmm, It's almost time...

Food is a funny thing. Generally, you would expect people in countries to eat what naturally fits in with their country's climate, e.g. hot, heavy foods to keep you warm on a cold winter's day in the North, or a fresh crisp salad in the hot Mediterranean sun.

Ghanaians seem to breach all those rules. You'd expect us to eat salads of avocado, lettuce, tomatoes, beans etc. or be living of smoothies and fruit salads, with all the beautiful, "exotic" fruits and vegetables that grow naturally here. Instead, the most common dishes are hot, heavy, often oily soups. There's light soup, palmnut soup, groundnut soup, green green, and if not soup, an equally hot, heavy stew: okro stew, garden egg stew, kontomire, red red. Each of these dishes, made from a tomato and onion base, usually cooked in palmnut oil. And are these soups & sauces served with a light array of vegetables? Nooooo! Rather an equally heavy ball of starch in the form of fufu, banku, kenke, omotuo, tz, or alternatively gari!

It is a wonder that we get anything done after feasting on our national dishes! Even the Spanish have realised that a siesta is in order after a good meal in the heat, and yet we, after eating one of our local dishes, struggle to keep our eyes open at work, when our productivity has decreased by 80% and count the minutes til the working day is over.

When Smoothys opened in Osu, I thought the tide may be turning towards a lighter, healthier way of eating, but after meeting the proper Kenyan there one Sunday evening, I realised, smoothies will not be considered a snack option in the place of a burger or Kofi Brokeman (roasted plantain), but rather a dessert for couples after a lovely plate of hot, heavy, starchy food!