SeneGrub

After the weather, the next thing I have been asked most about is the food. Tasty descriptions of ingredients, home-made concoctions and the offerings of various eateries is really the realm of Experimental Jifflings (there’s a link on the left) but let me give you a bit of a picture of food in Dakar:

Theiboudienne:
This is the King of all Senegalese dishes and the first meal you will read about in any guidebook. And rightly so because, my goodness, it is everywhere. If you don’t like fish and rice, you’d best either pick an alternative holiday destination or bring a packed lunch. I think it looks pretty special – a giant plate of rice with a hill of goodness piled in the middle – lots fish still on the bone, and then a selection of veg that varies and can include cabbage, carrot, aubergine or manioc, all in a fishy, onion-y sauce. It doesn’t look pretty for very long though – the fun part is that everything is still whole, or in big chunks, so when digging in you have to grab the carrot or the fish or whatever either with your hand or a spoon, depending on household preference, and break a bit off for yourself and for anyone else not within reaching distance of said carrot, but without using your left hand – a bit of a challenge at the beginning but soon develops into a party trick.

There is also a variation with meat which is equally good although I doubt I will ever master cutting meat off a bone with a spoon…

Yassa
Mmm, yassa is gooood! It is meat, often chicken, with a lovely onion sauce all over it. I am told it is just onions with some lemon. I am sceptical as I am not sure how those two solitary things can blend together to make such a tasty thing, but apparently it is all in the timing and caramelising of the onions. I’m happy to eat it, whatever it is.

In fact onion sauce is omnipresent, so I would add onions to my list of things you must like if you are going to live in Senegal, along with French bread, Nescafe and Hot sugary minty tea.

Mafé
Mafé is another rice dish with meat/ veg but with a peanutty twist. Extremely tasty but you pay for it afterwards- it sits in your stomach like a brick.

Chakri
So imagine this one then – millet and sour milk/yoghurt with sugar. A peculiar texture but actually really good – sort of like a cross between a bowl of bran buds and semolina. The sour milk is unpasteurised – I’ve had it a couple of times without any trouble but I realise that stomach-wise it’s not such a smart move, and you can make it European style with normal or evaporated/ condensed milk.

There is also a hot version – the name escapes me but with the milk poured on it’s like a rice pudding fresh from the oven.

Sheep’s feet soup
This has a wolof name but I’ve forgotten it and anyway it wouldn’t have the same impact. An enormous pot of soup with all sorts of veg is made in a sheepy stock which contains not just feet but neck and rolled stuffed intestines. It’s surprisingly good (ok, ok, I admit I am still acquiring the taste for the foot part but the rest is good), although I bet it would taste better with a blindfold.


I don’t want to deprive Mr Jiffler of potential content so I won’t say anymore. Suffice to say I am worried about becoming the size of a house with all this rice, white bread and hearty food…