I like food. You like food. Everyone likes food. Now that we’ve taken care of that, let’s focus on the different types of food. In my life, the main types of food are American and Sierra Leonean. Even though I am American, I come from a purely Sierra Leonean family. Because of this, my nutritional life is filled with a mixture of American dishes and Sierra Leonean dishes. I’m going to talk about Sierra Leonean dishes. Here are some of my favorite Sierra Leonean in my life.

Common Characteristics of Sierra Leonean food:

• The food is popular in the West African culture. Though I am specifically calling the foods Sierra Leonean, they are really West African because many bordering countries have similar foods (e.g. the foods in this post are also popular in Liberia and Nigeria). I’m just saying Sierra Leone because it applies specifically to me.
• At the same time, it has its Sierra Leonean twist. I can assure you that the Sierra Leonean okra soup is different from the Nigerian one (personally I like the Sierra Leonean one the best).
• It is hot hot HOT. There is no such thing as an African dish that is not spicy. Tell me if you think of one, but there aren’t a lot.

With that being said, let us begin to dive into the foods (and drinks) of Sierra Leone!

Roasted Fish

A common meal Sierra Leoneans like to make is roasted fish (a.k.a grilled fish).  One major reason is because Sierra Leone is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean, which makes it easier to catch them quickly and get a daily stock. How do you make it? It seems simple; it’s literally in the title. You roast the fish. Don’t be fooled though, it’s much more complicated than it looks. There are many things that have to be done before the fish touches the grill. For example, you have to make cuts into fish to season it (see the picture). Afterwards, there are other things to do such as marinating it for at least thirty minutes and making everything that goes with the fish, like pepper, onions, peanut sauce and lime.

Now it’s time to make the actual fish. It’s much better to grill the fish over a charcoal grill than an electric or gas grill because it keeps the flavor of the fish. Finally, when grilling the fish there should not be too much charcoal. This will cause the fish to cook slower and as a result, the fish will be well cooked.

 

Ginger Beer (Homemade)

Don’t let the name scare you. Ginger beer is like root beer; it’s not alcoholic. What’s really funny about this drink is that it didn’t originate in Africa; it actually originated in Britain and was exported around the world. Like the roasted fish, the process for making it is not as simple as squeezing the juice out of the ginger and drinking it raw. You start by washing the ginger very well. Afterwards, to get the juice out of the ginger, you pound or blend it. After extracting the juice, water and lime needs to be added to it. Next, put the mixture on a sifter to clean out the residue. After this, add as much sugar as you think you need into the final mix. This is a drink best served cool.

There are two things you have to remember about adding water to the ginger: it’s not optional and you have to be careful how much water is mixed with it. You have to add water because drinking ginger without water is like drinking a hot pepper. At the same time, you don’t want to add too much water because you won’t be able to taste the ginger. In other words, add water to dilute the ginger but make sure to balance the amounts.

I’m very glad that I got to share these foods that Sierra Leoneans really like to eat and drink. There are so many other foods that I could talk about, but that’s something I will leave for another post.

 

Bye everyone!

I got all of this information from my parents. Thanks guys :).

Images:

Powell, Celia. Homemade Ginger Beer. Photograph. Flickr. Flickr. 8 Dec. 2012. 9 Nov. 2015.

Smith, Peter. Roast Gilthead Sea Bream With Rosemary Butter. Photograph. Flickr. Flickr. 1 Apr. 2010. 9 Nov. 2015.