enjoying the local cuisine

 

Not a particularly well-composed photo, as it was only supposed to be a record shot for my own memories, not something to share.  But then I thought about how good some of the Senegalese dishes are, and how important hospitality is in this country, and decided that I needed to share it as there is no way I can do this dish justice in any attempt to describe it.

For a start, the dish - thieboudienne as it's called locally - is usually translated for foreigners as "rice and fish".  Yes, the basis of the dish is broken rice, and it contains fish (typically grouper or snapper), but it also has a great variety of vegetables (in the case above, it has carrots, cabbage, sweet potato, yams, bitter tomato and aubergine), often other seafood (eg the prawns and crabs above), plenty of onions, tomato and tomato paste, local ingredients such as yet (some kind of mollusc, typically fermented in sand) and nététou (fermented locust beans) and other seasonings.  The lady who made the one above told me that it took her around three hours.

It's eaten out of the platter it is served in - either with the fingers or with a spoon - each person digging in to the rice nearest to them but with those close to a bigger ingredient typically cutting chunks off and delivering them to other diners - and the host(ess) sharing out the fish.  Typically any foreign guest will find huge piles of everything placed in front of them!  It's commonly agreed to be the national dish, but there are plenty of other local dishes such as chicken or fish yassa (in a sauce of onions, lemon juice and dijon mustard), and mafe (a kind of peanut sauce).  All three are delicious.

What you might notice from the picture above is evidence of alcohol consumption!  In fact, of the group I ate this with, the only person I noticed not drinking was the African-American amongst us.  Certainly in Dakar, all of the supermarkets have a well-stocked alcohol section, with wines, beers, liqueurs and spirits held in much greater quantities than required to supply the 5% of the population who are Christian.  In fact the Muslim leaders here do not talk about alcohol and the population happily drink - although I've not seen evidence of excessive drinking.

I have to admit though that this platter above was a rare special treat for me, and there is no way I am going to make the effort and take the time required to prepare any of the local dishes for my own consumption when I can rustle up some pasta in a tomato and onion sauce in fifteen minutes!