by 1. Bissap
Bissap is a Congolese drink made from soaking dried hibiscus leaves and adding LOTS of sugar. It’s served chilled. It’s a very simple and refreshing drink. Just don’t get it on your white shirt or else you will have that stain forever.
2. Safou
Safou is the food that I miss the most from Africa by far. People have mixed feelings about safou. Either you love it or you hate it. I thought it was gross the first time I ate it but then fell in love with it the second time that I ate it. Safou is a fruit that you can only find in Central Africa (Nigeria, Cameroon, Gabon, Congo). The outside is purple and it is hard and you have to cook it by either boiling it in water or by frying it on a pan. When cooked it is softer and the interior is green. You can season it with some salt and then eat it. Safou is super good and I wish I could find it here in the US.
3. Fanta Passion
Fanta passion is another thing you can only find in Congo Brazzaville. It is super delicious. That is why we drank so much as you can see in the above picture. The 1-liter version above costs $2 and you can find smaller ones for 50 cents. It is sooo good. We need to make a petition to have Fanta Passion everywhere.
Do you want to know the top 10 things every missionary going to Africa needs? Check this out: https://ldsmissionarygear.com/top-10-things-needed-in-africa/
4. Eru
Eru is by far my favorite Cameroonian food. You can find it in the city of Douala, where the English-speaking Cameroonians sell it as street food. It is so good! It consists of this unique African leaf that is mixed with a bunch of other things cook with palm oil and seasoned with lots of pepper. The unusual thing about eru is that they put chewy cow skin in it. I may sound weird but its a lot better than it sounds. It also comes with this white dough-like thing unique to Cameroon called water fufu. Water fufu is literally amazing and it cools down your mouth when you eat the hot eru. You can see it in the picture above.
5. Plantains
Plantains are the best thing ever. They are sort of like bananas, a little less sweet and a little harder which makes them perfect for frying. When you fry them you can eat it with mayonnaise and they taste absolutely delicious.
6. Shawarma
Shawarma!!! They are so good! You can find shawarma everywhere in the world. In France they are called kebab, in the US they are also called kebab or donner kebab. What’s cool thing about shawarma in Cameroon is that they sell them EVERYWHERE. In fact there’s this one street in Douala where all they do is sell shawarma. We would get shawarma every Monday after going to the cyber cafe at the best restaurant in Douala.
7. Peanut butter/chocolate baguette
In Congo, in the little stores that are everywhere, a very common snack you can buy is a baguette cut like a hotdog that you can have drizzled with peanut butter or chocolate sauce or both. This was a super decadent snack that we would get at the end of a long day of walking and working in the hot sun. When you eat it all of your problems go away. I ate this daily with one of my companions and it gave us the energy we needed to work another day.
8. Fresh Mangos
It seems like in Congo every tree is a mango tree. When it becomes mango season from September to December ginormous mangoes, some the size of bowling balls, grow on nearly every tree. On each one of these huge trees there are literally hundreds of mangoes. You can buy huge mangoes for a few cents during this time of year.
9. Saka saka
Saka saka was my favorite food when I was in Congo Brazzaville. It’s made of crushed cassava leaves mixed with eggplant, and other things then cooked in palm oil and served on rice or with fufu. It’s so good!
10. Cassava fufu
Fufu is made of a flour mixed with hot water. Its sort of like an uncooked dough that you use to eat with sauces. Cassava fufu is made of cassava flour and is unique to Brazzaville. Its feels soft and squishy when you hold it and it just tastes good. Its my favorite fufu after water fufu from Cameroon.
