Food is one of my favorite parts about traveling.
Ingredients reveal clues about a place’s climate and agriculture. Service style reflects the pace of society and general lifestyle. And interacting with the locals opens the door to memorable experiences that will teach you far more about a place than books and blogs can.
I’ve been sailing around Africa on a cruise ship for nearly 50 days, and I’ve had very few local food experiences.
But why Katie?!
Over my adventures, I’ve learned that you should always ask yourself 3 questions before eating something. (Nothing like a parasite and salmonella during your best friend’s wedding in Mexico to make you realize you shouldn’t just eat everything…)
- Is the food made fresh/properly reheated, or has it just been sitting out?
- Does the place having running water/an ability to wash hands and clean cooking utensils?
- Is the person cooking the food also handling the money?
No food establishment is completely immune against serving dishes that could spread food-borne illnesses. But these 3 questions can help reduce the risk.
During the lap of Africa, many places the ship docked just didn’t have food options that fit these criterium.
Access to water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) is a huge problem in Africa. 1 in 3 Africans face water scarcity, and an estimated 358 million people lack safe water. Consuming contaminated water can cause diarrhea, vomiting, parasites, typhoid, dysentery, and polio, among other sanitation-based sicknesses. Collecting accurate data on how many people die from such diseases is challenging, but according to the WHO, around 842,000 people die from diarrhea each year alone (a number that has been trending down.)
Some causes of dirty water include industrial waste, erosion, leaking sewage that flows into rivers due to poor sanitation facilities and plumbing, agriculture run off, and the need to defecate in the open due to a lack of safe toilets—all of which are exacerbated by increasing populations. Climate change adds more fuel to the fire.
The issue extends past sickness and death. In order to get clean water, kids may need to miss school, adults may need to miss work, malnutrition is more likely, as is poverty. Water, sanitation, and hygiene are critical for a healthy society that can flourish, and something that’s easy to take for granted in developed countries.
Some Food for Thought….
The world (led by developed nations) shut down to limit deaths from COVID-19. How much has it cost? THIS source estimates a $114 Trillion (and counting) price tag– but let’s be real, the true value is hard to calculate. 6.66 million people have died (as of December 12th, 2022), and it’s hard to say how many lives were saved due to the lock downs.
Now, take a look at the chart below for how many people have died from diarrheal diseases from 1990-2019.
And this is just diarrhea– it’s had to fathom what the total death count is from WASH-related diseases over the past 3 decades.
Imagine if just a tiny fraction of that has been spent to fight COVID was spent on helping developing nations address their water, sanitation, and hygiene problems? I am NOT commenting on wether the price tag of COVID was worth it or not, and I’m certainly not taking away from the lives lost. Rather, I’m pointing out that trillions of dollars were spent to save lives, and millions of more can be saved at a fraction of the price.
Going through this research has been heartbreaking and my privilege of simply being born in the US keeps delivering blows to the gut.
The lack of water, sanitation, and hygiene was quite visible in many places we visited. As much as I wanted to dive into the food culture, I did a very un-Katie like thing—I took the “better safe than sorry” approach.
Now I DID have some eats along the way. I tried traditional Jordanian food in Aqaba, I had a fish feast in Madagascar, a roti wrap in Zanzibar, and plenty of tasty bites in Durban and Cape Town (although South Africa is a bit of an exception.)
And I had a feast in Dakar, Senegal! Which is what I want to share with you.
Let’s dive into my eats from Chez Loutcha!
I started with the national drink of Senegal: Bissap
Bissap is made from a species of hibiscus flower called Roselle. It is a lovely ruby color, and can be enjoyed hot or cold. Your flavor journey will depend on how heavy handed the brewer is with the sugar. The less sugar there is, the more tart and sour the beverage will be.
This cup of bissap from Chez Loutcha was quite sweet. I’m not a fan of super sweet juices, but I was happy to try it nevertheless!
Fun Fact: Bissap exists in many parts of the world under different names. It’s called Zobo in Nigeria, Sobolo in Ghana, and Agua de Jamaica in Central and South America.
Chicken Yassa
Yassa is a traditional Senegalese dish that’s simply a meat (usually chicken or beef) seasoned and stewed in lemon juice, African spices, and loads of caramelized onion. It doesn’t require too many ingredients and is quite easy to make, and there’s plenty of room for the chef to add extra pizazz via more spices.
My serving of chicken Yassa at Chez Loutcha had a solid dose of vinegar that paired surprisingly well with the vibrant lemon flavor and sweetness of the onions. There wasn’t any heat to it, which would have been nice to balance out the acidity. There wasn’t too much meat on the chicken. but perhaps that’s because I’m used to hormone packed, farm raised chickens in the US.
For a couple recipe ideas, click HERE and HERE.
Beef Mafé (also spelled Maafe)
Mafé is a groundnut stew that’s made with a tomato-peanut sauce with onion, garlic, cabbage, peppers, spices, and root vegetables. It’s rich and hearty with a gentle earthiness, and very popular in Senegal among other west African countries
The Mafé at Chez Loutcha was just okay. I couldn’t taste the peanut, and the beef was overly fatty. However, I see the potential for the dish being delicious!
