Category: Talking about food

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Even more random photos – Ghanaian food edition!

Ei, this “clearing my phone of random photos” thing that I started long ago, I’m still at it. Sorry for occasional visitors of this blog. It’s not that I don’t eat oo, it’s not that I don’t cook oo, it’s just that I’m often too lazy to post the results here. You have to put the recipe steps and photos in the proper order, write everything in an understandable way, post it, then come back again and post some more, etc. My hat is off to consistent food bloggers. It is NOT easy.

In contrast, just posting random photos of food is something anyone can do. Even me, haha. So here are some more photos of food I ate/people sent to me. Let me clear them all and make space for proper things. And I will post some actual recipes one of these days. I made some very good spicy cucumber pickles the other day, for example.

Enough about that. On with the random photos.

Fufu. It’s those two round balls over there, a sticky mess of pounded yam/plantain/cassava/cocoyam. A Ghanaian staple dish I’ve never really liked, but my house people loooove the stuff. Based on the plate, this picture came from my brother, I think? On the left side is some light soup to dip the fufu in. Floating on top is some pepper, fish, okro, garden eggs… all things I don’t like. Hard pass on this one.

Kenkey and sardine and pepper. Now you’re talking my language. I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned before that this used to be one of my favorite “Go to” dishes when I didn’t feel like cooking/eating what was cooked. Even now I still eat it once or twice a week, despite the inevitable heartburn.

You know as kids, we were given only a single sardine from the tin and we had to make it last for the whole ball of kenkey, it was crazy. Now I’d prefer to eat two/three sardines and save the rest for a sandwich, but whenever I do that someone always steals my sardine from the fridge. So I just eat the whole tin like the bourgeois pig that I am.

Definitely not my picture! Someone’s dressed-up, fancy frou-frou version of kenkey, pepper sauce and sausages. Not gonna lie, it looks great. Like something you’d serve to your in-laws to let them know that you’ve been to school some. 😀 Or something a fancy Ghanaian restaurant would serve. The photo looks a bit touched up in Photoshop, but still a very appealing meal. Please leave a comment if you know the source.

Fante kenkey with pig trotter stew, a.k.a nane fÉ”lÉ”. One of my mother’s favorite stew. The pig trotters tend to be heavily salted, while some variants of fante kenkey contain no salt at all (Ga kenkey is pretty salty as well). Put the two together and you get the faint sweet-and-sourness of the fante kenkey matching well with the spicy, salty trotter stew. Truly a match made in heaven.

Could have sworn I’d posted this before, but this is otor (otÉ”), a festive food Ga people eat on their birthdays. Not strictly on the calendar birthday but on the weekday closest to their calendar birthday. E.g. if you were born on Wednesday March 10th, you would eat your otor on the first Wednesday after March 10th. People don’t adhere to it that strictly though.

The dish is just a simple blend of boiled yam, red palm oil, salt and onions. Boiled egg is definitely not optional! As far as I know, nobody just eats otor for fun, even though it’s tasty and filling. Somehow the “birthday food” idea is too deeply ingrained in our heads.

Now for a change of pace, something sweet. This must have come from my brother as well, because I haven’t eaten these in a while. If I’m not mistaken, they’re called “monkey’s tails” a.k.a. adun le in Ga. They’re a sweet crunchy snack, but I have zero idea what goes into them. I used to eat them as a kid in La, but I haven’t had any in decades. These look very pale though, maybe underfried?

Another favorite snack of Ghanaian kids: yoryi! (yɔɔyi in Ga). Apparently its English name is “velvet tamarind” or something crazy like that, I dunno. Wiki says it’s called Dialium cochinchinense and is currently endangered, which is sad to hear. We used to love them as kids, and they’re in season right now so I expect to see them in the marketplaces. Especially now that there’s a fad going around claiming it has all kinds of health benefits. Ghanaians and their health fads. Yoryi is just yoryi, eat it quietly and be happy!

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More random food photos from who knows where

I really should take the time to sort through my WhatsApp and other accounts and get rid of all unnecessary photos. I’m sure I have at least 2000 “Good morning” pictures alone.

Kkakdugi – Korean fermented radish

This is kkakdugi – a Korean dish of fermented radish. It’s just like kimchi, but instead of cabbage you use cubed daikon or Korean radish instead. I’ve made kimchi lots of times, with varying results, so I decided to mix things up with this kkakdugi. I can’t remember when I made it, but I remember it was fairly tasty. It’s just that it’s not as versatile as kimchi because of the cube shape, so I haven’t bothered to make any since.

My usual beloved kenkey, shitor (black pepper sauce) with fried fish. Why did I take a photo of something I used to eat regularly? Kenkey >>>> banku. Growing up I didn’t really like shitor, but as I grew up my tastes changed. Or maybe I finally encountered quality shitor that changed my mind. Sometimes it’s not that you don’t like a certain food but rather you haven’t had it properly made before. I didn’t like fried fish either… still don’t, but I can tolerate it. And it does go well with kenkey

Speaking of banku, here’s a random banku shot with more fried fish:

With red pepper this time. “Shitor” is just the Ga word for pepper, so in my house we make a distinction between shitor ni ashi (black pepper sauce, literally “fried pepper”) and shitor ni akpo (red pepper sauce, literally “ground pepper”). I vastly prefer the latter, but the former is more popular AFAIK.

Enough from me, let’s clear out photos people sent to me.


Breakfast? I believe my sister went on some kind of trip around the UK and sent it to me. Even the fancier Ghanaian hotels won’t give such general quantities and varieties of preserved meats. You’ll be lucky if you get a chicken frankfurter and La Vache qui Rit.

Umm… again I can’t remember the source of this. It might have been from my brother’s trip to Lebanon. I say that because of the greens in the foreground. He complained that the cuisine was “full of leaves,” it was so funny XD. I could be wrong, though. It could be just steak and potatoes with a side salad.

I remember this one. My sister randomly ordered sushi for delivery. Of course this is in the UK, not Ghana. You can’t get cheap, affordable sushi for delivery around here, especially not a package looking this fresh and tasty. Ebi te yie (some people are doing well!).

Don’t quote me on this, but I think my brother had a try at making quesadillas? It has the crunchy look, and I think I see a sneak peek of cheese? I wouldn’t know though, because even before I discovered I was lactose intolerant, I disliked cheese.

I have NO idea what this is. I’m guessing some kind of dessert? Where did the picture even come from? I can’t remember. The powdery thing… Soybean flour? It’s too white. Yah anyway, anyone who knows what it is, let me know.

I have more random pictures to post, but this is enough for one day. Stay safe everyone!

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Clearing random food pics from my computer

Exactly what it says in the title. Sometimes I have random pictures I took, or photos someone sent me over WhatsApp, or photos I have no idea how I got. Once in a while I clear out my phone and delete them, but since I have a handy food blog that I rarely post on, I might as well post them here before I delete them.

My sister sent me this photo of a “Coconut Cashew Crunch” snack she found for sale at Shoprite. She knows I love coconuts and I love cashews, and she said it was delicious. I think the price was around 20 Ghana cedis, but that was like 5 years ago so it’s probably 40 cedis or more now. For that price I can buy about 20 “akpenator” coconuts, or 20 fresh coconuts. Or 20 lone cashews, because cashews are expensive, haha. Anyway I’ve never tried this product because the ingredients are so cheap, but the packaging is great and I’m told it tastes nice. Try it if you get the chance.

Random sausages my sister bought from a place called “Tea Baa.” It is (was?) a cafe style place she visited a few times and said they had decent sausages. And yeah, they weren’t bad. Just that they contained a lot of water, as you can see in the pan, so they looked deceptively plump. The taste was okay, actually better and less “chemical” than many sausages I’ve tried locally. Unfortunately I don’t know where they were sourced apart from Tea Baa, so I can’t tell you.

Every once in a while, a human being just wants to chew meat. In fact I once had a business idea to run a stall that sells just grilled and roasted meat, and lots of it. Maybe one or two sides, but really just meeeeaaaaat. You can take the idea if you want, just send me some kickbacks.

Anyway, this fine steak you see here was bought from Shoprite some years ago. Was it beef? Was it pork? I think it was pork because it was delicious and tender despite being cooked so thoroughly. I covered it in jerk sauce and marinated it for an hour or two before cooking, soooo yummy. Since then I’ve had some very dodgy and stinky meat from Shoprite so I’m not so hot on buying their meat any more. But this one was a good experience.

When you walk right into Shoprite at Osu, there’s a small display with goods that have almost reached their sell by date. It’s a good opportunity to pick up cheap sauces, condiments and other foods you wouldn’t normally touch. I think this Spicy Tikka Masala cost about 10 cedis? Very cheap, nothing to lose at that price. I’ve bought other sauces for around that cost as well, like salad dressings and Ina Paarman dressings and stuff. Some were hits, some were misses, either way for 10 cedis it’s a bargain.

This was some years ago, though, so I don’t remember the taste clearly. I know for a fact it wasn’t spicy at all. What I did with it… I put some on chicken and roasted it in the oven. Maybe I didn’t add enough because it tasted pretty bland. You’re better making your own, really, unless you can get it on sale like I did.

Saving the best for last, these Baresa garlic-stuffed olives were the bomb! My sister and I are still talking about them years after they’ve been eaten and digested and become part of the food chain. They were just that delicious. Sharp, tangy, garlicky, refreshingly good! If you like pickles even just a little, if you like garlic even a tiny bit, get these for sure and try them.

As for where to find them… honestly I can’t say. These were a gift from a relative in the UK (thanks so much Bro. E!). I think they can be found at Lidl, if you have anyone coming down. Alternatively, now that there are so many foreign grocery stores like Citydia and Farmer’s Market etc, you might get lucky and find some there. If you do, buy 10 bottles. You won’t regret it!