With Roots in Africa: Okra, a Veritable World Traveler

February 22, 2013 by Cynthia Bertelsen

Although my father used to fry fresh okra, rolling it first in beaten egg and then coating it with crushed saltine crackers, he never grew it in the vast backyard gardens of my childhood. So, quite by accident, I learned about the okra plant in an entirely different place. Rigoberto and his cousin dug the garden patch, stirring up the Honduran earth with a rusted shovel and a hoe missing a screw, which made a loud squeak each time it […]

Categories: Africa, African Cooking, American Cooking, Cooking, Ethiopia, Honduras, Local foods, Okra, Photography • Tags: Africa, Brunswick Stew, Charleston Receipts, Cornbread Nation, Ethiopia, Gumbo, Honduras, Karen hess, Margaret Holmes, Okra

*”Late have I loved you, beauty so old and so new”: A Sweet Potato Rhapsody

January 25, 2013 by Cynthia Bertelsen

“Late have I loved you, beauty so old and so new,” or so confessed St. Augustine, a Catholic saint born in 354 A.D., in what is now Algeria. And I, I could also say the same, about many things. One of them being sweet potatoes, a beloved Southern staple.** It was a Thanksgiving Day. I was five, going on six. Old enough to know what I liked to eat. But that day I added another “yuck” food to a list […]

Categories: Africa, African Cooking, American Cooking, Bibliographies, Southern Food • Tags: George Washington Carver, Old Ebbitt Grill, Southern cooking, Sweet potato, Thanksgiving, Virginia, World Food Habits

Tasting France in Senegal

March 9, 2012 by Cynthia Bertelsen

The ocean there, it’s infinite, a place where horizon and water meet like a seam in a dress, a little bump and then smoothness again. Sunlight pierces the dawn’s fading blackness and, overhead, the parasitic gulls swirl, their curved yellow beaks moving incessantly, filling the air with their own peculiar songs. And then human voices join in, throbbing, shutting out the pounding noise of the waves. Senegalese fishermen singing Men, women, and children rush to the boats, thrusting their hands […]

Categories: African Cooking, France, French Cooking, Senegal • Tags: African Cooking, Fish, France, French Cooking, Mullet, Senegal, West Africa

Who were the Cooks? What We Know (More or Less) about Kitchen Servants (1)

March 6, 2012 by Cynthia Bertelsen

While studying The Complete Indian Housekeeper and Cook (Steel and Gardiner, 1888), I found the instructions concerning servants a fascinating insight into the mindset of the authors and – by extension – their time period. And the current intense interest in the British TV series “Downton Abbey” allows us to answer some of  the questions of how servants, their roles, and their presence, made possible many things in history that we take for granted. Cooking, for one thing. And not […]

Categories: African Cooking, American Cooking, Cookbooks, Cooking, English Cooking, French Cooking, Reference • Tags: Downton Abbey, Hannah Glasse, House & Garden, Household manuals, Julian Fellowes, Servants, Slaves, Southern cooking

Belleville Revisited

October 6, 2011 by Cynthia Bertelsen

The Belleville market — straddling the crossroads of Paris’s 10th, 11th, 19th, and 20th arrondissements — presents the determined photographer with a tremendous dilemma: how to take pictures without being literally swept up in the crowds and jostled like a buoy bobbing in heavy seas? Although the market runs from the Menilmontant metro stop to Belleville (about 2 km.), the easiest way to tackle it  seems to be to get to the Belleville stop, the beginning (or end, depending your […]

Categories: Africa, African Cooking, Algeria, French Cooking, Moroccan Cooking, Morocco, Photography • Tags: Belleville, France, French cuisine, Open-Air Markets, Paris

Belleville, Paris, France: II

September 22, 2011 by Cynthia Bertelsen

Categories: Africa, African Cooking, Algeria, France, French Cooking, Photography • Tags: Belleville, France, French Cooking, Paris, Photography

Belleville, Paris, France: I

September 19, 2011 by Cynthia Bertelsen

Belleville, the site of my upcoming study in France, filled with other worlds and other tongues, other ways and other dreams, but all French, just the same.

Categories: Africa, African Cooking, Agriculture, France, French Cooking, Local foods, Photography • Tags: Africa, African Cooking, Belleville, France, French Cooking, Open-Air Markets, Paris

Vivre en l’Outre-Mer, or, The Trials of Living in French Congo ca. 1923: Part III

August 22, 2011 by Cynthia Bertelsen

Once settled into their bungalow overlooking Stanley Pool in Brazzaville, the Vassals faced the problem of hiring household help, especially a cook. Unlike many Europeans, they found a cook who knew his business, of whom Gabrielle wrote: I am glad, too, to have a change from German cooking.* Our primitive black Matamba is far superior to the fair, civilized Anna we have left behind [in Germany]. In such extremely primitive surroundings, I come to a meal without any expectation of […]

Categories: Africa, African Cooking, Chefs, Cooking, French Cooking • Tags: Africa, Brazzaville, Cooks, France, French colonial empire, French Colonies, French Cooking, Gabrielle M. Vassal, Life in French Congo

Vivre en l’Outre-Mer, or, The Trials of Living in French Congo ca. 1923: Part I

August 8, 2011 by Cynthia Bertelsen

When the French government appointed Dr. Joseph Vassal, Englishwoman’s Gabrielle Vassal’s French husband, Head of Health Services for Equatorial French Africa (A.E.F.), he exclaimed happily to her, “Je suis nommé en A.E.F.” Naturally she asked, “What’s A.E.F.?” So he replied “Afrique Equatoriale Francaise,” and pointed to Gabon, Tchad, Oubangi-Chari, and the Congo, with its capital at Brazzaville. And that is how she started on the journey that she recorded in minute, if somewhat racially biased, detail in Mon séjour au […]

Categories: Africa, African Cooking, France, French Cooking • Tags: Africa, Brazzaville, Colonialism, Congo, France, French colonial empire, French Cooking, Gabrielle M. Vassal, Natural History Museum, Oubangi-Chari, Tchad

Grits, Georgia, and Escaoutoun on My Mind

July 7, 2011 by Cynthia Bertelsen

Big Hominy Grits (Photo credit: James Bridle) These days, when you drive through the endless piney woods of low-country Georgia and South Carolina, you will see fields of corn, and not so much cotton. And, if you’re lucky when you stop for breakfast, there will be grits on the menu. Not just any old grits, not instant, God forbid, but the real deal: stone-ground little bitty bits of corn flecked with chaff and germ. People who grew up with grits […]

Categories: African Cooking, American Cooking, French Cooking • Tags: Arthur Barlowe, Escaoutoun, Espelette pepper, Florence Fabricant, France, French Cooking, Gascony, Grits, Hélène Darroze, Maize, Mushrooms, Périgord, Southern cooking, Walter Raleigh

Couscous in France: It’s a Long Story

June 28, 2011 by Cynthia Bertelsen

To look at all the Maghrebi/North African restaurants in Paris, you might be tempted to think the food they serve appeared only recently in France. It’s not hard to visualize this scenario when you consider the exodus of pieds noirs and Harkis (local men who served as soldiers for France) that occurred as Algeria fought for independence from France, culminating in 1962 with the Evian Accords. Think about the numbers – guesstimates, yes: over 900,000 pieds noirs and 91,000 Harkis […]

Categories: Africa, African Cooking, Arab cooking, Cookbooks, Couscous, France, French Cooking, Moroccan Cooking, Morocco • Tags: Charles de Clairambault, Clifford Wright, Couscous, Françoise Bernard, France, Francois Rabelais, Garnantua, Ginette Mathiot, Harkis, Je Sais Cuisiner, Jean-Jacques Bouchard, La Bonne Cuisine de Madame Saint-Ange, Mohamed Oubahli, Morocco, Pieds noirs

Léon Isnard: Bringing the Cuisines of Africa to France

June 24, 2011 by Cynthia Bertelsen

“It seems that the word couscous is a Gallic version of “rac keskes,” which means “crushed small.” ~ Leon Isnard Whether you think about it consciously or not, the nineteenth-century European drive for overseas colonies still molds our world. Ever since the Portuguese sailed for Prince Henry the Navigator out of Sagres, an ocean-facing place now boasting a top-flight pousada, the world was destined never to be the same again. France grabbed just as hard for her share of the […]

Categories: Africa, African Cooking, Algeria, Bibliographies, Chefs, Cookbooks, France, French Cooking, Morocco, Tunisia • Tags: Algeria, France, Henry the Navigator, Léon Isnard, Le Grand Hôtel Bourelly, Maghreb, Oran

Banania — an Image of French Colonialism?

January 31, 2011 by Cynthia Bertelsen

I will tear down those Banania smiles from the walls of France. ~~ Léopold Sédar Senghor, poet and first president of independent Senegal* Branding. Such a loaded word, when you consider it. For many Americans it suggests branding cattle and other property, to prove ownership. Very capitalistic, those cowboys, don’t you think? In any case, branding products sometimes pinches cultural nerves. Banania, a French product with very strong branding, began in the heyday of France’s colonial empire and is still […]

Categories: Africa, African Cooking, Chocolate, France, French Cooking • Tags: Banania, Black Skin White Masks, Caricatures, Cocoa, Colonialisme, France, Frantz Fanon, French colonial empire, Lake Managua, Nutrial, Peau Noire Masques Blancs, Pierre-François Lardet, Stereotypes, Tirailleurs Sénégalais, United Fruit Company, West Africa

Culinary Diffusion? Yes, in Alain Ducasse’s Kitchens

January 18, 2011 by Cynthia Bertelsen

In a way, it’s the French version of “Who Wants to be a Millionaire.” World-famous French chef, Alain Ducasse, chose fifteen women from Sarcelles, a suburb of Paris housing mostly poor immigrants mainly from France’s former North African colonies. An article in The New York Times tells the whole story, almost a Cinderella saga: 15 Women Win Golden Tickets to Alain Ducasse’s Kitchens – NYTimes.com All are from Sarcelles, all were either born outside of France or are first generation immigrants. […]

Categories: Africa, African Cooking, Arab cooking, Chefs, Cooking, French Cooking • Tags: Alain Ducasse, Chef, Cooking schools, Cuisine Francaise, France, French cuisine, Haute Cuisine, Mali, North Africa, Paris, Sarcelles

Cabbage and Black-Eyed Peas, Oh My! An Easy New Year’s Dish with a Long History

December 22, 2010 by Cynthia Bertelsen

Yes, I know, you’re overwhelmed with preparations for Christmas. If you’re like me, you’re still trying to come up with THE menu that will knock Uncle Scrooge out of his foul grinchy mood. So how come I’m looking at New Year’s foods already? There’s a good reason — there’s only one thing to eat that day. Black-eyed peas, a gift from a part of Africa ruled by the French for a long time. [They were there as early as 1659 at […]

Categories: Africa, African Cooking, Cooking, France, New Year's Day, Southern Food • Tags: Africa, African Cooking, Black-Eyed Peas, Cabbage, Chou, Dawadawa, New Year's Day, Niebe, Pois yeux noirs, Science Magazine, Senegal, Southern cooking, Striga, Virginia, Witchweed

The Potager of Thomas Jefferson: A Kitchen Garden in Photos

October 28, 2010 by Cynthia Bertelsen

Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson, that amazing genius and inventor, and — according to the late food writer, Karen Hess — probably America’s first real gourmet. Any lover of books, art, architecture, wine, and food should dream of visiting this place at least once. [Note: It's the only house declared a UNESCO World Heritage Centre in North America.] Jefferson’s two-acre potager (loosely translatable as “kitchen garden”), located on the  southeastern side of what used to be the slave quarters […]

Categories: African Cooking, American Cooking, Cooking, French Cooking, Gardens, United States, Virginia • Tags: Colonial Virginia, France, Garden, Menon, Monticello, Potager, Thomas Jefferson

Idylls of Cusine, #76

August 22, 2010 by Cynthia Bertelsen

[A photograph, and nothing more, for silent contemplation.]

Categories: Africa, African Cooking, Mushrooms, Photography • Tags: Africa, Food Photography, Mushrooms, Termitomyces

Idylls of Cuisine, #59

April 18, 2010 by Cynthia Bertelsen

[A photograph, and nothing more, for silent contemplation.]

Categories: Africa, African Cooking, Cooking, Photography • Tags: Africa, African Cooking, Children, Cooking, Food Photography, Refugees

Lent, According to American Cookery, the Magazine, That is

February 26, 2010 by Cynthia Bertelsen

Lent can be a really interesting time of the year. For some of us living in the Northern Hemisphere, a mere glimpse outside our windows forces the introspection and reflection behind the whole idea of Lent. Who wants to walk around out there in that howling wind and blowing snow? Better to stay inside and contemplate life’s meaning. (Or whatever.) And, as we’ve talked about before, Lent comes at a time where food used to be rather scarce and so […]

Categories: Africa, African Cooking, American Cooking, Cooking, Lent, Menus, Reference, Spinach, Sweet Potatoes • Tags: Africa, American Cookery magazine, Boston Cooking School, Lent, Menus, Spinach, Sweet Potatoes

Tuna: More Than Just a Canned Wonder

January 22, 2010 by Cynthia Bertelsen

Definition: tunny large sea-fish of the mackerel order, 1530, probably from M.Fr. thon (14c.), from O.Prov. ton, from L. thunnus “a tuna, tunny,” from Gk. thynnos “a tuna, tunny,” possibly in the literal sense of “darter,” from thynein: “dart along.” Aunt Ellen took the green can and pried it open with one of those old-fashioned can-openers that looked more like a chisel than not. Plop went the pinkish tuna, almost salmon colored, into the pot. With our dirty little hands, […]

Categories: African Cooking, Fish, Recipes • Tags: Dinah Ameley Ayensu, Dolphin-Safe Tuna, Dolphins, Tsukiji Market, Tuna

A Cook’s Finger, or, A Pearl Beyond Price, Part 2

January 8, 2010 by Cynthia Bertelsen

Continued from January 7, 2010: In the beginning, dealing with Michel’s injured finger didn’t bring out the best in me. Truthfully, I longed to wash my hands of my cook’s ineptness. I did not want to take the time to deal with any of it. And yet, seeing Michel disintegrating in pain, well, I knew that I had no choice. Like it or not, I was involved. With a Burkinabe friend’s help, I found a local doctor willing to look […]

Categories: Africa, African Cooking, Burkina Faso, Cooking • Tags: Africa, African Cooking, Burkina Faso, Cooks

A Cook’s Finger, or, a Pearl Beyond Price, Part 1

January 7, 2010 by Cynthia Bertelsen

I won’t pretend that living in a Francophone sub-Saharan African country like Burkina Faso was some romantic T. E. Lawrence kind of thing to do, because it wasn’t. And it certainly wasn’t Karen Blixen’s lush green Kenya, portrayed in her book, Out of Africa. I mean, gritty red dust blown in from desert Harmattan winds constantly sprinkled our refrigerator shelves like glitter on Christmas ornaments. How romantic is that? Even though we lived in the capital city of 700,000 people, […]

Categories: Africa, African Cooking, Burkina Faso, Cooking • Tags: Africa, Burkina Faso, Cooks, Health

Idylls of Cuisine, #41

December 6, 2009 by Cynthia Bertelsen

[A photograph, and nothing more, for silent contemplation.]

Categories: African Cooking, American Cooking, Art, Cooking, Photography • Tags: African-American Cooks, Cooks, Food Photography, Kitchens, Plantations, Slavery

Boarding House Food in Lagos, Nigeria

September 24, 2009 by Cynthia Bertelsen

In Africa, boarding houses enjoy a popularity resembling that of the nineteenth- and early-twentieth centuries in the USA, for the same reasons. More reasonable in cost than buying a house or living in an apartment, a boarding house also eliminates the need to worry about food preparation. Many students, such as those attending school in Lagos, Nigeria, live in boarding houses. Many students come from distant villages and might not have family living in Lagos. And even if they do […]

Categories: Africa, African Cooking, Nigeria • Tags: Africa, Boarding Houses, Cayley College, Cooks, Menus, Nigeria

Lady Tew’s “West African” Cookbook

September 12, 2009 by Cynthia Bertelsen

An interesting cookbook for those pondering the influence of colonialism on the British and their foreign subjects: Cooking in West Africa: A Colonial Guide, by Lady Muriel Tew (London: Jeppestown, 2007. Originally published 1920.) In the introduction to the 2007 edition, Lady Tew’s son David provides some rare biographical information about her: My mother was born in 1881. She had a year at Cheltenham Ladies’ College under the famous Miss Beale. She met her husband Mervyn Tew when he was […]

Categories: Africa, African Cooking, Cookbooks, Nigeria • Tags: British Colonialism, Cooking in West Africa, Cooks, Muriel Tew, Nigeria, West Africa

Idylls of Cuisine #29

September 6, 2009 by Cynthia Bertelsen

[A photograph, and nothing more, for silent contemplation.]

Categories: Africa, African Cooking, Cassava, Cooking, Kenya • Tags: Africa, Cassava, Food Photography, Kenya, Ugali

East Africa, Flavor Principles

July 16, 2009 by Cynthia Bertelsen

East Africa (Mauritus, Zambia, Madagascar, Kenya, Tanzania, Somalia, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Réunion, Seychelles, Comoros)** Except for its rather reticent use of red pepper, East Africa’s indigenous cuisine resembles that of West Africa in many ways. Starches: Millet, sorghum, corn, cassava, cocoyams, yams, sweet potatoes, bananas, plantains (matoke), potatoes (because of British influence), and rice Flavoring: Chiles, peanuts, tomatoes, onions, mushrooms, turmeric Fruits: Citrus, papaya, coconuts The mark of early Arab trade remains in East Africa and indigenous food patterns reflect […]

Categories: Africa, African Cooking • Tags: Africa, Comoros, Cooking, Cooks, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Food, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritus, Réunion, Seychelles, Somalia, Tanzania, Zambia

Southern Africa, Flavor Principles

July 15, 2009 by Cynthia Bertelsen

Southern Africa (South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Mozambique, Swaziland, Lesotho)** The cooking of southern Africa reflects its complicated and evolving history. Aside from the original inhabitants of the region, the following groups affected the cooking of this region: Arabs, East Asians like the Malays, Dutch, Indians, Portuguese, British, Germans, and French. A true stew pot! Like other culinary areas in Africa, the indigenous people of the area cook with grains like corn, millet, and sorghum; meat (including bushmeat and biltong, […]

Categories: Africa, African Cooking • Tags: Botswana, Cooking, Cooks, Food, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zimbabwe

Central Africa, Flavor Principles

July 14, 2009 by Cynthia Bertelsen

(I’ve decided to change the appearance of “Gherkins & Tomatoes” so that the font is larger and easier to read. Please let me know what you think about the change. Thank you.) Central Africa (Angola, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Republic of the Congo, Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Malawi, Rwanda, Burundi, Cameroon, Sao Tomé & Principe)** The Portuguese, French, and Belgians left their mark on the region in many ways, including aspects of their cuisines. But foreign travelers, […]

Categories: Africa, African Cooking, Uganda • Tags: Angola, Burundi, Cameroon, Central Africa, Central African Republic, Cooks, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Malawi, Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, Sao Tomé & Principe

In Morocco (and Beyond), Flavor Principles

July 13, 2009 by Cynthia Bertelsen

Northern Africa (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt)** According to Harva Hachten, in her Best of Regional African Cooking, “the North African housewife can choose from up to 200 different spices and herbs when she stops to replenish her supplies at a spice stall in the souks of the medinas.”[1] The guiding flavor principles in northern African cuisine include intricate spicing, particularly in Morocco, similar to the Persian manner. But flavor principles applied to North African cooking don’t begin and end […]

Categories: Africa, African Cooking, Arab cooking, Morocco • Tags: Africa, Cooking, Cooks, Flavor Principles, Food, Morocco, North Africa, Preserved Lemons

Counting Beans: A Soupçon of History

June 26, 2009 by Cynthia Bertelsen

Not too long ago, I looked at the messy pile of one-pound bags of beans in my pantry and knew I needed to start using them up. But how? For some reason, the night before, I’d cooked chicken-and-sausage gumbo and maybe I could just make red beans to go with the leftover rice. Yes, that would be it. Never having made red beans and rice in the style of New Orleans, I could feel that little frisson of excitement that […]

Categories: Africa, African Cooking, American Cooking, Beans, Haiti, Recipes, Southern Food • Tags: Bean Soup, Bean Stew, Beans, Haiti, New Orleans, Southern cooking, West Africa

Flavor Principles Out of Africa: West Africa

June 9, 2009 by Cynthia Bertelsen

Cooking in Africa follows certain patterns: Universals – Onions, tomatoes, peppers Starches – Cassava, cocoyams, sweet potatoes, cornmeal (mealie meal and samp or dried corn kernels, etc.), bananas, plantains, yams, rice, millet, sorghum, fonio, couscous Thickeners – Okra, melon and squash seeds (egusi), peanuts Vegetables – Pumpkin and other squashes, green leaves, okra, eggplant, black-eyed peas West Africa is no exception to this culinary pattern. This part of Africa includes Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Chad, Senegal, The Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone, […]

Categories: Africa, African Cooking • Tags: Africa, African Cooking, Flavor Principles, Fufu, West Africa

Flavor Principles Out of Africa: The Plentiful Permutations of Pumpkin

June 6, 2009 by Cynthia Bertelsen

The following recipes demonstrate, in a very concrete way, just how taking one ingredient and cooking it according to regional culinary practices changes the whole flavor palette. North Africa: Marak Dar Marhzin (Moroccan Pumpkin Stew) Serves 4-6 4 T. cooking oil 2 medium onions, chopped finely 2 garlic cloves, peeled and finely minced 1 t. ground turmeric 1 t. ground cumin 1/8 t. ground coriander 2 carrots, peeled and thinly sliced into rounds 2 baby turnips, peeled and cut into […]

Categories: Africa, African Cooking, Pumpkin, Recipes • Tags: Africa, Butternut squash, Flavor Principles, Pumpkin

Flavor Principles Out of Africa: It’s the Beans

June 5, 2009 by Cynthia Bertelsen

Fermented Foods, Especially Oilseeds, as Flavoring in the Cuisines of Africa Opo Iru ko ba obbe je. (Yoruba proverb): Plenty of Iru [dawadawa] does not spoil the stew. In Africa, as in other parts of the world, fermented foods form an important part of the diet. Made from plant and animal materials, these foods are transformed into more intensely flavored products by the presence of bacteria, yeasts, and molds. These modify the original foods (or substrates) physically, nutritionally, and organoleptically. […]

Categories: Africa, African Cooking, Beef, Fermentation, Fish, Recipes • Tags: Africa, Beef, Dawadawa, Fermentation, Fish, Flavor Principles, Iru, Locust Beans

Flavor Principles Out of Africa: A Fish Tale

June 4, 2009 by Cynthia Bertelsen

Use of Smoked and Dried Fish as a Flavoring in Africa When looking at the role of fish – smoked, dried, fresh, salted – in the diets of people in Africa, it is only natural to note that people settle most often by water, for the obvious reason that water drives life. Fish provided, and still provide, one of the major sources of animal protein in the diets of many people in Africa, almost 22% according to a report by […]

Categories: Africa, African Cooking, Fish, Recipes, Soup • Tags: Africa, Dried Fish, Fish, Maafe, Okra, Smoked Fish, Soup

Idylls of Cuisine #14

May 17, 2009 by Cynthia Bertelsen

[A photograph and nothing more, for silent contemplation.]

Categories: Africa, African Cooking, Nigeria, Photography • Tags: Africa, Chin-Chin, Cooking, Food Photography, Nigeria

Adding More Spices to Your Life

May 15, 2009 by Cynthia Bertelsen

Jessica B. Harris, chronicler of many things African, at least when it comes to cooking anyway,  includes a recipe for “Traditional Peppersoup Spice Mixture” in her book, The Africa Cookbook: Tastes of a Continent (Simon & Schuster, 1998). She says, “I have included this recipe so that you can see the world of new tastes that are yet to be discovered.” Eleven years on, we are still doing that discovering. The peppersoup spice formula reads as follows: 1 tablespoon atariko […]

Categories: Africa, African Cooking, Chicken, Nigeria, Recipes • Tags: Africa, African Cooking. Chicken, Peppersoup, Recipes, Spices

Chicken Curry, From Réunion (the Country)

May 11, 2009 by Cynthia Bertelsen

Réunion is a country. About 800 kms. east of Madagascar. Off the coast of Africa. A former fueling/supply station for ships on their way to Asia for spices. A bit “out there,” yes. But the food there … tastes and flavors marry each in ways only possible when people from different cultures meet each other and, well, you know. Beginning officially in 1649, France wielded power, political and culinary, over this small way-station (then called “Bourbon”) in the Indian Ocean. […]

Categories: African Cooking, Réunion • Tags: African Cooking, Chicken, Chicken Curry, Curry, Réunion