Monkey Bread Juice

Around when Ramadan started (Karem, here), Amadou asked me if I knew what galettes were. I have slowly learned that just because I know what something is in French in France, that doesn't mean I know what it is in Francophone Africa. So I hesitated, before saying that I knew what French galettes are..

It turns out in Burkina, galettes are these little fried cakes. You see tons of women making and selling them all along the roads -- apparently they're a Karem specialty, for breaking the fast at night. They are either rice-based or millet-based, and they're sweet, but not THAT sweet. And they're delicious.

Along with galettes, I also tried haricots nébié, which is some sort of beige bean. They were cooked in oil I think -- they were pretty good too.

The juices are the best though. I branched out with two new types recently: Bissap, and Pain de Singe. Bissap is actually hibiscus, which I've only ever ecountered in the form of perfumed shampoos (Meg and Gennie, remember that?). It turns into a dark red juice that is super sweet and delicious. I see huge piles of the dried leaves along the side of the big fruit and vegetable market, so at least now I know what it is. Pain de singe, after much googling, turns out to be the fruit of the Baobob. If you look up pictures, you'll see that inside the brown shell things, there is white powder (I guess the seeds are dried out? It's hard to explain). The white powder is then used to make a sweet juice. Honestly, it's another thing I would have sworn was dairy-based. It's thick and white, and has a slightly grainy taste -- almost like a pear. It tastes somewhere between an orange and a peach. It's really, really good.

I also caved and got a salad at one of my favorite restaurants here, Les 3 Karités. I had been super cautious, since everyone warned me about eating raw fruits and vegetables that might have been washed in local water. Amadou assured me that this place uses stuff to kill bacteria, so I figured I'd give it a shot. So far, so good, which is awesome because I am seriously missing salad at this point.