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!
