Ahoy,
In this episode, I will purposely digress and share anecdotes which hopefully will disturb you. Especially if you’re a vegetarian, he he.
So Côte d’Ivoire has a great wealth of food and national dishes. A meal is typically comprised of some sort of starch and some sort of meat served in a stew.
For starch, there’s rice, atiéké and futu/fufu. Atiéké is delicious, it looks like couscous but it’s made from yucca. Futu and fufu are fermented doughs made of yucca, plantains, corn or any other similar plant. Everything besides rice is eaten with the right hand, the left hand - which I normally favor - being dedicated to specific bodily cleansing, and therefor off limits during meals.
There are various types of stews, or sauces. 2 African staples are peanut sauce and palm sauce, but Côte d’Ivoire also has eggplant, “grain” (still not sure what it is), tomato, and different types of gombo, which I think is okra, only more slimy.
Now the meats….. there are meats I have chosen to eat at night, and meats I eat anytime. There’s lots of fish, good chicken, goat or lamb, sometimes beef parts, usually the tips of the beast, feet, tail, tongue, etc. Now there are more exotic meats, such as snails… hedgehog… monkey… cat…. and a variety of forest creatures I’m unable to translate the names of (and often have no clue what they are). Some of these meats I prefer to eat at night when the lighting is dim and I can’t really tell what I’m eating. But the bottom line is I haven’t eaten anything I didn’t like! I was a little disturbed last night when I grabbed a chicken drumstick: I couldn’t find any meat on it and couldn’t understand why it had so many bones. As it turned out, it wasn’t a drumstick but a chicken foot.
YUM
But believe it or not, I am starting to crave the food here, some of the sauces are DELICIOUS, and some of the more exotic meats, such as hedgehog, are quite tasty as well.
There are also plenty of tropical fruits and street foods which I gorge myself with.
Côte d’Ivoire reminds me a lot of Brazil, or I should say Abidjan reminds me of Rio. The weather is similar, Abidjan is much flatter but has a lagoon and water all over the place, people are extremely proud of their country and are known for their joie de vivre, or love of outdoors partying/socializing/music. Both cities are also socially fucked up, with huge gaps between a wealthy, fairly arrogant elite and the common poor. Both countries love big butts, Côte d’Ivoire has bobaraba, and Brazil has bundas. I also imagine the center part of Côte d’Ivoire and Bahia are similar, since both revolve around coffee and cocoa.
Enough with the geographic study. Living conditions. I am staying with Fulbert Koffi. Those who speak French will appreciate the name, and I’d like to add that his little brother is called Célestin. Koffi is a really nice, welcoming guy, he is sharing his tiny studio with me, and the occasional enormous cockroaches which I enjoy killing.
He lives in Yopougon, the largest district of Abidjan. It’s north of Le Plateau, the biznass district, and Adjamé, which has a huge, chaotic outdoor market. Yopougon is the cultural heart of the city, far from Cocody, Marcory and the other nicer, whiter parts of town. I hardly see anyone but Ivorians here, the huge Lebanese and large French populations keep to their quarters apparently. People are generally welcoming, although I can still feel occasional resentment towards the French.
Yopougon is home to the rue Princesse, a notorious stretch famous for its loud nightlife. Sure enough Koffi’s place is a few minutes away so I quickly got a taste of it. Rue Princesse has a few blocks of door to door maquis‘. The typical maquis serves drinks and sometimes food, and is completely open onto the street. There are no neighbors complaining about the noise, no police officers shutting places down because of noise complaints or public drinking. There are no sidewalks either, so cars and night owls are only inches away. The overall chaos is bliss if you ask me, I haven’t noticed any real problems or situations here at night.
Music-wise…… there are nice tunes. Some of them quite catchy. But a lot of the popular music here is fairly TERRIBLE. Thankfully, there is so much range and so many artists and studios that certain niches still amount to a lot of good stuff. The main problem with the music is the biggest threat I’ve encountered here in Africa: the cheap ass synthesizers. Contrary to Mali, Côte d’Ivoire seems to have fewer actual musicians. Most artists here are singers, whereas Mali has plenty of kora, balafon or guitar players. So Ivorians use synths for almost EVERYTHING. And that makes the music fairly unbearable. Unless it’s blasted so loud that only the beat and bass are distinguishable. This is not unlike Ghana, where I found amazing tracks, but where the average song is SO BAD you wonder how music production is filtered… and basically, it’s not. Those who record are the ones who can score enough money, or know a producer well enough, not those who are the most musically inclined.
Also worth noting: Ivorians dress up. People in Dakar dress pretty smart too, but Ivorians do it up in style. A pretty loud style, largely inspired by bling bling American hip hop. The logo I see the most is probably Dolce & Gabbana, followed closely by Armani. And of course plenty of Nike, Lacoste, etc. Either that or plain old business attire. Slacks and tucked-in shirts. But whether it’s bling bling or work clothes, my Havaiana flip flops are not a big hit with my counterparts here. All day people stare at my feet and seem to wonder why whites are so WEIRD. Comfort over credibility!
That’s the story for now, I have many other things to share, we can discuss when I see you!!!
Ahoy,