Yaasa Poulet

Tried to update here with this entry last night, but the power went out at the school, which means that the wi-fi goes out as well. So here it is now!

One of the things I was most worried about in coming to Senegal was honestly the food situation. Dakar is a located on a peninsula, and Senegal has a long coast to begin with, so I knew that fish would be a large part of the diet. The national dish, in fact, is called Ceebu jen, and is basically fish and rice. Okay, it's pronounced Cheh-boo-jen, I just copied the spelling from wikipedia. :p
But the fish here is very good, and tastes a lot like chicken to tell the truth. At my house we've had a variety of foods. Maafe is made with a peanut sauce and is a little more spicy, but really excellent. And my favorite dish is Yaasa Poulet. (Another variation of which is Yaasa Poisson.) The wikipedia definition of Yaasa Poulet is "chicken or fish simmered in onion with a garlic, mustard, and lemon sauce". But since I haven't (yet) learned how to make them for now all I know is that it's really excellent.

Eating a la Senegalaise involves eating with your hands. Since almost every dish is either chicken/fish/beef and rice the best way to do this is to roll a handfull of the dish into little balls and then try and get it from the communal dish into your mouth without spilling too much on the mat that's been laid down for that purpose. On the left you can see us trying to do just that! My host family doesn't normally eat like this, we have spoons. But we do eat from a communal bowl. If you imagine the bowl like a pizza pie, then every person normally eats from the slice in front of them. If there are big pieces of meat than the Mom or the head of the family will distribute it evenly into everyone's portion of the bowl.

On the right are Evie and Scram, two students from the program during orientation week, when we learned to eat with our hands. But like I said I haven't done it much since then. Last night there was a lot of people over at my house for dinner, so I think there wasn't enough silverware. My host brother and a few others did just naturally end up using their hands.

Anyway, more tomorrow on my host family. And a very happy birthday to my lovely sixteen year old sister!