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Chop bars and fried chillies Take a deep breath and salivate. Step aside McDonalds, Wimpy and Kentucky Fried Chicken, because Ghana is the place for fast food, Ofeibea Quist-Arcton writes. Quality street food is plentiful and delicious. Businessmen in suits and ties conduct working lunches at swanky "chopbars", cutting deals over steaming plates of waakye (pronounced waa chi - rice and beans with a sprinkling of fried meat or fish and a boiled egg). Blue collar workers might prefer something heavier: nkate nkwan and fufu (groundnut - peanut - soup and plantain or cassava pounded until it is the consistency of rising dough). Freshly cooked snack foods and side dishes include kelewele (ripe plaintain, fried with ginger and hot chilli). Kofi broke man, which in pidgin English means Kofi who is skint, is a meal that fills and sustains when you are at your poorest and hungriest. But, like chips with vinegar and ketchup, this dish can be classy and tasty. Its main ingredient is sliced plantain, roasted on open coals and eaten with roasted groundnuts shelled as you wait and wrapped in recycled paper or newspaper. Kyinkyinga, pronounced chin chin ga, is Ghana-style kebab, coated with hot powdered pepper and chased with a chilled beer. Koliko (fried sweet potatoes), could serve as elevenses, while kenkey is a staple, made from fermented maize, that goes well with fried or smoked fish, mysterious stews filled with okra or garden eggs (African aubergines), snails, prawns and maybe akrantie (a bush rat known as the grass cutter). The ubiquitous accompaniment is the hot pepper condiment shito (she plus "to" as in top) a mixture of powdered shrimp, small lumps of fried meat and chillies fried with oil. It is as common as tomato ketchup, but ten times tastier. Ghana's roadside food sellers compete for business and do a roaring trade. The early birds, who serve the breakfast brigade, are up before dawn. Workers start their day with koko (a smooth and liquid porridge optionally spiked with pepper) and kose (ground beans fried into a small doughnut). If you prefer to "line your stomach", as Ghanaians say, with something larger, ask for chibom - a plateful of fried eggs wedged between two doorsteps of unsweetened bread or sugar bread slices. Any accompanying hot beverage has the word tea added as a suffix, so you can drink coffee-tea, Milo (chocolate) tea or a mug of regular tea-tea. But do not expect Twinings. By lunchtime you are spoilt for choice. This is when ingenuity and extras make the difference. The fast food traders with nous will add a vegetable salad, baked beans, lashings of fresh chilli peppers chopped with onions and tomatoes, chicken feet, turkey tails or talia (tagliatelle or Italian rice) as a side dish. What is especially impressive about street food in Ghana is that it is available almost around the clock. After partying all night, what better than a plate of check check (rice, salad and grilled chicken) at the open-air eating spot near Kwame Nkrumah Circle in Accra. In days of old, food would have been served in plantain leaves or newspaper. Now, black plastic bags (known as ewiase ye sum, which means "the world is dark") are the typical takeaway wrappers. Transparent plastic bags have replaced the traditional calabash (gourds) in which street drinks were served. It may not be as much fun as drinking your asana (non-alcoholic corn brew) or swigging akpeteshie (alcoholic and strong) and palm-wine from a calabash, but it is certainly easier. Instead of spilling it down your cheeks and neck, as you negotiate the coconut in one hand and your food in the other, vendors now use straws. Which means that at last you can sip or slurp at your leisure. KELEWELE
Dice the plantain, chop and grate the ginger. Add salt to taste and mix in the chillies. Heat the oil in a frying pan (or deeper pan for larger quantities). Ensure the oil is so hot it is shimmering (but not smoking). Add the plantain. Fry until golden brown. Serve, as a side dish or snack, with shito. |