Top 10 foods that I miss from Africa

1. Bissap

Bissap is a drink made from boiling dried hibiscus leaves in water and then 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 purple stain forever.

2. Safou

Safou is the food that I miss the most from Africa. 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. The last time I had safou was in Paris. There are a lot of Africans who sell it in one part of the city.

3. Fanta Passion

Fanta passion is something you can only find in Congo Brazzaville. It is the best soda ever. We drank a lot of it 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 be sold everywhere.

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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 cooked in 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 it’s 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

I’m sure you’ve already heard of plantains. I love them! You can fry them or you can boil them. When you fry them you can eat them with mayonnaise which is a very Cameroonian thing to do and they taste absolutely delicious. They are much better than french fries.

6. Shawarma

Shawarma!!! There is something about shawarma that is just irresistible. Dare I say, shawarma is better than burritos. You can find shawarma almost anywhere in the world, in France and the US, but the cool thing about shawarma in Douala, Cameroon is that they sell it EVERYWHERE. In fact there was this one street where all it is is shawarma carts. We had a p-day tradition where we would buy shawarma after going to the cyber cafe.

7. Peanut butter chocolate baguette

A peanut butter chocolate baguette is something you wouldn’t understand unless you’ve been a missionary in Africa. It’s something you get at the end of a long day of walking and you need something with lots of calories. This thing hits the spot. It’s a baguette with peanut butter and chocolate sauce drizzled inside and when you eat it all of your problems go away. I ate this daily with one of my companions and it gave us the strength we needed to work another day.

8. Fresh Mangos

Now, you can find mangoes everywhere, but where in the world will people offer to climb a tree and get you the juiciest mango ever? Or where can you eat mangoes at every teaching appointment and have investigators give you a bag full of mangoes? Only in Congo Brazzaville, which is the land of mangoes. Every tree seems to be a mango tree and when it’s mango season from October to April I’ve seen mangoes grow to the size of someone’s head.

9. Saka saka

Don’t judge a book by its cover, 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. I hope I will be able to eat it again in the future! It’s so good!

10. Cassava fufu

The fufu from DRC is made from three ingredients: corn meal, cassava flour, and hot water. The fufu from Congo Brazzaville is unique in that it’s made with only cassava flour and water so it is softer and more malleable. It is also more delicious! If you go to Brazzaville and eat with the members you will get the chance to eat cassava fufu.

Sunday lunch at the bishop’s house. He was the most generous member ever to allow all four of us to eat at his home which was a huge sacrifice for his family.