What we eat

     Liberian food is just different from ours.  I am not saying that it is worse, literally a matter of taste.  But it is different.  Our first cook in Tappita was a little more in tune with US tastes.  We certainly had a lot of Liberian food, but she would mix in meals with fried eggs and a type of chipate pancake, there was some degree of familiarity.  And once she learned to add sugar to the cinnamon rolls, you had something to look forward to.  Our new head cook hasn't learned these peculiarities yet.  Now breakfast is almost always a cream of wheat type porridge, occasionally with hard boiled eggs.  Cold cereal is usually available.  Once or twice a week we get a donut looking piece of fried bread dough which is a nice break.

     The staples of Liberian diet are chicken, fish, beans and rice.  We would have multiple variations on these possible combinations, usually with a lot of hot spices.  In the US, I will normally eat my meals a good bit more quickly than the others with whom I share the meal.  Here, I can't eat too quickly because my mouth would burn up.  It does help with conversation around the table, but even then it can take 15 minutes for my mouth to feel normal after a meal.  

     Spaghetti noodles have become popular and in Haiti were even a regular part of the breakfast meal.  Here they usually come with lunch or dinner.  You will notice that I didn't mention anything about vegetables.  The main one is a dark green leafy vegetable, often called Lagos spinach which is mixed with the stewed chicken or fish.  There is one type of food that both the Expat and Liberian staff enjoy;  french fries and barbecue chicken (not KC BBQ, but the chicken does taste better than it is prepared at other times (still really spicy)).  Sometimes, I think to satisfy the expats, there will be sliced cucumbers and in half the meals we do get fruit.  Usually it is pineapple and you hear no complaints from anyone about this.  The pineapple here is fresh off the tree and amazingly sweet.  I usually save it for dessert (which is a tradition that seems to be absent in this part of Liberia).  

     So, enough of my first world (barely concealed) complaints.  When we drive through the villages, there are still a lot of children with the pale brown hair and boney arms of chronic malnutrition.  You can also see the stunted adults and the drawn faces of the chronically hungry.  I am indeed thankful for the food I receive, but I do look forward to a nice piece of prime rib with a twice baked potato at Hereford House.