Eye Awurade

[ Techiman, Ghana ]

No matter what other tasks I’ve undertaken recently (visa extension, annual physical, bike maintenance, photo shoots), every day demands one thing: food. In West Africa that means fufu. At least that’s what they call it here in Ghana. #Fufu is a mix of boiled cassava and plantain, pounded into a viscous dough, then served in small balls with various types of soups and stews.

At the corner near my room is a stereotypical local restaurant, run by the same folks whose carpentry/coffin shop I featured some time ago. Every evening I chat briefly with the ladies who prepare the food and staff the shop, and they graciously allowed a few snapshots of their efforts.

—jim

The restaurant name is a Twi phrase one sees everywhere. There are many businesses with the name, and it appears as well on many religious notices. “Eye Awurade,” means, more or less, “It is God.” Apparently in the sense “Hey, I don’t deserve any credit for [x], ‘it is God!'” That’s the one and only Twi factoid you’re likely to receive here, Ladies and Gents.

Two of my neighbors prepare the evening's batch of fufu--a staple of Ghanaian cuisine.
65645677_2413881341967104_6707550176778649600_n

The façade of Eye Awurade, an absolutely stereotypical roadside restauarant here in Ghana, and throughout most of West Africa. It may not look like much, but the food is good, cheap, and it's a true taste of Africa.
65543476_2413882885300283_4418683223370891264_n

This is the vat used to boil the cassava and plantain. In this pic and the next the women are draining the water in preparation for pounding the fufu.
65058502_2413884288633476_692465168973561856_n

Draining off the boiling water
65310429_2413883825300189_3753754992402497536_n

I don't fully understand the process, but the fufu prep here is two-staged. First this woman mixes the cassava and plantain together to make an initial "flour." The vat on the right is the one being emptied in the previous image. You can clearly see the yellowish plantains on the top, covering the off-white cassava.
65507210_2413881501967088_8392391556950130688_n

The same vats are used to prepare and serve the various soups that go with the fufu. My personal favorite is groundnut soup (groundnut = peanut).
65497668_2413883358633569_6369379827874529280_n

Almost every kind of soup uses fish as part of the base, being prepared here.
65117269_2413882545300317_4705089213379379200_n

Tending the soup base over a wood-fueled fire. (Wood fires are far less common here than charcoal, fyi, esp in urban areas.)
65308353_2413882141967024_4899384866606415872_n

I'm cheating here a little, because this isn't Eye Awurade. It's Page's Restaurant, where I get my breakfast every morning: two rice balls if they have 'em, groundnut soup with a special Ghanaian okra sauce and a dollop of fresh onion. Page's serves one giant vat of groundnut soup and one of beef stew. Groundnut is on your left, and the woman is preparing my morning take-out. The rice balls are prepared analagously to the fufu, using rice instead of cassava. Obviously, I suppose.
65319530_2413881761967062_1050056359262814208_n

Looking across the bow of a tuk-tuk at Page's restaurant (the blue tent-covered booth). It may not look like it, but this place is slammed every morning, from about 8:30am until after noon. (NB: they don't call them tuk-tuks here. Rather, I think, "Pragya"--taken from the name of an Indian movie or moviestar. Indian soap operas are all the rage here, which I find fascinating and strange. Makes me homesick though.)
65377857_2413881061967132_3751918189508820992_n

Share On

The Transglobalist
Photographer, cyclist, paraglider pilot, backpacker, skydiver, writer, explorer, musician, hitchhiker, digital nomad, and American dissident.

Old Town Mombasa

September 30, 2024

The Ugandan Loop, Part III

September 16, 2024

The Ugandan Loop, Part II

September 14, 2024

Eye Awurade

Share On

You might also like

Archives

Categories

@Instagram

Read previous post:

The Electricians