Was a fun piece Chris.
Richard - was most of the food sold at those Africa open air sites safe to eat?
Dave:
The produce from the open-air markets is generally good. Of course, one needs to be careful about the meat, poultry, and fish -- although salt-dried fish is usually safe for use in stews. With all of the water-borne diseases which are endemic in that part of the world, the greatest concern is the drinking water. If you can't find a reliable brand of bottled water, you need to boil and filter any water you use for drinking, cooking, or brushing your teeth. (If you don't have any purified water, you need to brush your teeth with beer.
) As far as prepared food purchased from vendors in the bush, it is usually safe to eat anything which you observe being removed from boiling oil.
I was lucky. Malaria was the only illness I experienced in the four years I spent there.
But speaking of the food, here is a recipe for groundnut (peanut) stew from the area around Kano which I liked well enough to bring it back with me:
NORTHERN NIGERIA GROUNDNUT STEW[size=10](Serves three people)[/size]
Ingredients6 pieces of meat (goat, mutton, beef, or camel)
4-6 ounces of roasted groundnuts
8 ounces of milk
8 ounces of water
4 large peppers
1 small onion
2 medium-sized fresh tomatoes
1 ounce of ground dried chili peppers
6 ounces of locust beans
Salt to taste.
Directions1. Build a hot fire.
2. Bring the water to a boil.
3. Grind the peppers, onion, tomatoes, locust beans, and groundnuts.
4. Wash the meat and season with salt.
5. Add the meat to the boiling water and cook until the water is about half gone.
6. Add the ground peppers, onion, tomatoes, and locust beans and cook for 15 more minutes.
7. Add the groundnuts and cook until the stew thickens.
8. Add the milk last and cook a few more minutes.
9. Serve the stew hot with boiled rice.
