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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

Prometheus Unbound: New Evidence on Humans’ Early Use of Fire

April 3, 2012 by Cynthia Bertelsen

I woke up this morning fully intending to end my two weeks of silence on this blog – due to familial obligations – with a preliminary examination of the role of ducks in French cuisine. But that alluring topic took a sudden backseat when I opened up my local newspaper and read, “Humans May have Used Fire 1 Million Years Ago.” Recent archaeological finds in a South Africa’s Wonderwerk Cave place human use of fire at least several hundreds of thousands of […]

Categories: Africa, Archaeology, Cooking, Drawings, France, Paintings • Tags: Africa, Félix Régnault, Grottes de Gargas, Myths, Paleolithic Diet, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, Richard Wrangham, Wonderwerk Cave

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

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

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

August 11, 2011 by Cynthia Bertelsen

Like many writers of her era, Gabrielle M. Vassal tended not to be very complimentary of Africans in Life in French Congo (1925) and compared them negatively and constantly to the Asians she’d known during her sojourns in Vietnam and China. She recorded her experiences during a trip to Libreville early during her stay in A.E.F. , before she and her husband settled in a bungalow in Brazzaville, saying about a luncheon meal served at the hospital there: At 12 […]

Categories: Africa, Cooking, French Cooking • Tags: Africa, Brazzaville, French colonial empire, French Colonies, French Congo, French Cooking, Gabrielle M. Vassal, Libreville

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

French cooks Exposition Anvers 1930 women eating

Eating Around the Empire in a Day: The 1931 Paris International Colonial Exposition

June 30, 2011 by Cynthia Bertelsen

To her sons who have extended the empire of her genius and made dear her name across the seas, France extends her gratitude. ~~ Inscription on the facade of the colonial museum, now the Cité Nationale de l’Histoire de l’Immigration Before EuroDisney, people who might never be able to go to Tahiti or Senegal or Morocco often attended various fairs and expositions. One such exposition left a lasting mark on France: the 1931 Paris International Colonial Exposition. Twenty-five years in […]

Categories: Africa, Asia, Cooking, France, French Cooking, Morocco • Tags: 1931 Paris International Colonial Exposition, Africa, France, Louis Hubert Lyautey, Marseille, Morocco, Paris, Vincennes

An Ancient Mediterranean Taste: France’s Boutargue

June 20, 2011 by Cynthia Bertelsen

The Egyptians who fled to Marseille from Egypt after the Napoleonic debacle there (1801) brought with them a hankering for batarekh, now called boutargue or poutargue in Provençal. Happily, Marseille happened to be a place where they could find batarekh, a caviar-like product made from the pressed and dried roes of grey mullets (Mugil cephalus). Eaten sliced potato-chip thin with olive and lemon juice, batarekh dated back centuries to ancient Egypt. At the time that the refugees stumbled off the […]

Categories: Arab cooking, Egypt, Fish, France, French Cooking • Tags: Africa, Ancient Egypt, Batarekh, Boutargue, Egypt, Francois Rabelais, French cuisine, Marseille, Potargue, Simeon Seth

Celestine: A Memory from French West Africa

March 10, 2011 by Cynthia Bertelsen

Blending as they do into the green leaves of the red-flowering flamboyant trees above the crumbling mud brick wall, it’s hard to see the bottle-green chameleons. Dozens of these “ground lions,” with their red throats puffing in and out like bellows stoking a fire, perch in the crevices of the wall.

Categories: Africa, Burkina Faso, France, HIV-AIDS • Tags: Africa, Burkina Faso, Food, France, French Colonies, HIV-AIDS, Markets, Red Pump, Upper Volta, Women in Africa

Cooking with Saint-Pierre (John Dory)

February 23, 2011 by Cynthia Bertelsen

As it fell on a holy-day, And vpon an holy-tide-a, Iohn Dory bought him an ambling nag, To Paris for to ride-a.* ~~ Child Ballad #284A: “John Dory” I first met John Dory at the open-air fish market in Rabat, Morocco. He’s a solitary soul. Doesn’t hang out too much with his own kind. And he goes by many names, John does: Saint-Pierre in France (also Poule de Mer, Sea-Hen, and Dorée), Gall in Catalonia, Gal in the French Midi, […]

Categories: Africa, Fish, France, French Cooking, Morocco, Recipes • Tags: Africa, Ballads, Child Ballads, Cooking, Fish, Food, France, French Cooking, John Dory, Louis Eustache Ude, Morocco, Recipes, St. Perre, The French Cook, William MacGillivray

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

Idylls of Cusine, #76

August 22, 2010 by Cynthia Bertelsen

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

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

Christopher Columbus, Portrait by Sebastiano del Piombo (Library of Congress)

BY WAY OF AFRICA: Seafood on the Plate

August 5, 2010 by Cynthia Bertelsen

Africa, West “…with a legion of cooks, and an army of slaves.”–Lord Byron– Five hundred and eighteen years ago, an event occurred that changed the world in more ways than its perpetrator thought possible. Christopher Columbus’s voyages caused a collision of cultures, people, and foods on a scale never before seen in the history of mankind. With Columbus’s “discovery” of America, thousands upon thousands of people yet unborn were destined to become slaves. And many millions of people around the […]

Categories: Africa, Food Columns, Recipes • Tags: Acras, Africa, Cooking, Cooks, Food, Haiti

Not Nuts (The Natural History and Far-Flung Adventures of the Lowly Peanut)

July 26, 2010 by Cynthia Bertelsen

A nguba is an arachide is a cacahuete. Or Gedda, French, and Spanish for “pea‑nut,” if you prefer. Arachis hypogaea looks like a nut, tastes like a nut, but is actually not a nut at all. More like a legume or bean. The name “groundnut” tries to get the thing situated correctly but even that is incorrect. Botanically, peanuts belong to the beans/legumes clan and are NOT nuts. Gastronomically, peanuts can’t compete with those culinary wunderkind, caviar or truffles. But peanuts don’t aspire to knighthood or a title. In the U.S., peanuts usually take the form of peanut butter or salty snacks. However, peanuts have both an ancient history and a tremendous potential in the cookpot, nobility or not.

Categories: Africa, Chicken, Food Columns, Nuts, Recipes, Tomatoes • Tags: Africa, Food, George Washington Carver, Peanuts, Pork, Recipes, Spices

Tomatoes on the Vine (Photo courtesy of L. Wilcoxen)

Tomatoes, Dust, and a Tasty Soupçon of Africa, Too

July 20, 2010 by Cynthia Bertelsen

My nose burned a little and an odd sensation on my forehead no doubt meant more freckles popping out. I didn’t care. I sat right where I wanted to be on that late August day, in the dirt between two rows of leafy tomato plants. Red globes of all sizes dangled like Christmas ornaments from the plants, the vines sinking into the dust from all that ripe weight.

Categories: Africa, Chicken, Chile Peppers, Food Columns, Recipes, Tomatoes • Tags: Africa, Chicken, Food, Habanero, Hot Peppers, Recipes, Tomatoes

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

The British Melting Pot

March 13, 2010 by Cynthia Bertelsen

I recently ran across these books, mentioned on an interesting British Web site providing glimpses and glances at cookbooks published in Britain, cookbooks that we here in the US of A rarely see. Maybe it’s my imagination, but it seems that the British cookbook market features more books concerned with other cultures and not so much with “slimming,” as our friends across the pond call dieting. So here they are, some books to fascinate you on a rainy day in […]

Categories: Africa, Book Reviews, Cookbooks, Cooking, India • Tags: Africa, Cookbooks, Cooking, India, Middle East, Peru

Cooking Fish — Let Us Count the World’s Ways: Africa

March 8, 2010 by Cynthia Bertelsen

It’s Lent. That means fish to a lot of people, even today, despite the relaxed rules of the Church. But how to cook fish? How to get past Mrs. Gorton’s Fish Sticks? Many, many ways. Let’s look at what people around the world do to get fish from the seas, rivers, and lakes from their pots and pans to their mouths, starting with Africa:* *For more on African food, see Fran Osseo-Asare’s magnificent blog about cooking in Africa, chiefly Ghana. […]

Categories: Africa, Cooking, Fish, Lent • Tags: Africa, Cooking, Fish, Ghana, Morocco, Nigeria, Photo Essay, Senegal, South Africa

A soufflé looking like this one might be OK. (Photo credit: Sharon Mollerus)

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

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

World AIDS Day 2009, and a Tribute to Celestine

December 1, 2009 by Cynthia Bertelsen

Today is World AIDS Day. Over 2 million people died of AIDS last year. And about 34 million people live with HIV, 2.1 million of them children under the age of 15. In honor of the day, I wrote the following story several years ago. (I originally published this on July 31, 2008. But in contemplating Thanksgiving, and after reading Dr. James Orbinski’s gut-wrenching new book — An Imperfect Offering: Humanitarian Action for the Twenty-First Century, I decided to re-publish […]

Categories: Africa, Burkina Faso, Europe • Tags: Africa, AIDS, Europe, HIV-AIDS, World AIDS Day

Hunger The-Four-Horsemen-Of-The-Apocalypse

Hunger is the Best Sauce

November 11, 2009 by Cynthia Bertelsen

A hungry people listens not to reason, nor cares for justice, nor is bent by any prayers. [Lat., Nec rationem patitur, nec aequitate mitigatur nec ulla prece flectitur, populus esuriens.] De Brevitate Vitoe (XVIII), Seneca (Lucius Annaeus Seneca) Chronic hunger is something that most of us in the United States will never really know.* Yet we, like most humans, fear it. Just as people have feared it for centuries. That fear permeated ancient myths and led to such collective cultural […]

Categories: Africa, Agriculture, Bibliographies, Bread, Cooking, Ethiopia, Europe, Evolution, Italian Cooking, Local foods, Methods, United States • Tags: Africa, Discorso sopra la carestia e fame, Famine, Giovan Battista Segni, Hunger, United States

Hunger, Starvation, Famine and the Sweep of Human History

November 9, 2009 by Cynthia Bertelsen

When it comers to food, we humans live in a paradox these days. In the West, there’s too much food — as long as one has money with which to buy it — and because of that excess, we begin to look like the Michelin Man or the Pillsbury Doughboy. And on the flip side lies true hunger and its cousin, starvation, usually in Africa and other places where money, transportation, and just plain decent soil (not to mention rain) […]

Categories: Africa, Agriculture, China, Europe, Thanksgiving • Tags: Africa, China, Europe, Hunger, Jamestown, Starvation, Thanksgiving

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

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

Food and the British Raj in Africa: A Photographic Interlude

September 4, 2009 by Cynthia Bertelsen

Because photographs and artwork lend insight into time periods that words might not (a picture is worth a thousand words, right?), it behooves those of us with a penchant for food history (and just plain prurient curiosity!) to examine visual renditions of the past. While reading old diaries, journals, and letters of the British Raj, I want to chide the authors, “Just take a picture!” or “Why didn’t you take a picture, so we can see what you really mean.” […]

Categories: Africa, Cooking, English Cooking, Menus, Methods • Tags: Africa, Photo Archives, Photos

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

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

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

Flavor Principles Out of Africa: The Basics

June 3, 2009 by Cynthia Bertelsen

What Flavor Principles Exist in the Cooking Found in Africa? Africa consists of 53 countries, all with their own culinary cultures. Certainly some similarities exist, but – for the most part – each country, and certainly each region, prepares its own trademark taste. What defines the cuisines of Africa?[1] And what flavor principles highlight those cuisines? Flavor principles signify more than just spicing a dish or adding herbs. Flavor comes from things other than just seasonings. Cooking techniques also change […]

Categories: Africa, Herbs, Spices • Tags: Africa, Cooking, Elisabeth Rozin, Flavor Principles, Herbs, Spices

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

Idylls of Cuisine #13

May 10, 2009 by Cynthia Bertelsen

[A couple of pictures with some food for thought and contemplation.]

Categories: Africa, Oil Palm, Photography • Tags: Africa, Food Photography, Orangutans, Palm Oil, Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil

Preparing the oil seeds for processing (Photo credit: One Village Inititive)

Palm Oil Processing

May 8, 2009 by Cynthia Bertelsen

Because palm oil added calories and flavor to traditional African dishes, it entrenched itself in the culinary landscape long before it became a product of corporate agriculture. The following pictures illustrate the basic technologies developed to garner the most from the oily seeds/fruits of the African oil palm:

Categories: Africa, Oil Palm • Tags: Africa, Palm Oil

Bambara Groundnuts, Not Peanuts

May 6, 2009 by Cynthia Bertelsen

Bambara groundnuts (Voandzeia subterranea) claim no peanuts as relatives. Another indigenous food from West Africa, the groundnut does tend to end up cooked in the same way that peanuts are, however. Cooks use pulverized groundnuts as a thickener, in much the same way that Middle Eastern cooks use almonds and Italian cooks use walnuts or pine nuts. The following photo essay provides a bit of the flavor of this plant. For more on the bambara groundnut, also called a “bean,” […]

Categories: Africa, Agriculture • Tags: Africa, Bambara Groundnuts, Crops, Groundnuts

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