On the Menu: Cameroonian Food

Ready to eat?

I hope you are because I've got a tasty treat for you.  "Traditional" Cameroonian food depends on what part of the country you are in.  Fresh fruit is plentiful throughout the country and they all eat their food basically the same way.  Diners are given damp towels to clean their hands and the food is served in communal bowls with the diners sitting on the floor surrounding the food.  Men usually eat first, then women and children.  The diner eats with his right hand dipping 3 fingers into a starchy food that is usually rice, mashed cassava (fufu), corn mush or plantains, and then dipping that into a stew or sauce.  Meat or seafood is eaten often but it is usually bush meat or locally caught seafood.  Vegetables include yams, greens, corn, tomatoes and many others found locally in Cameroon.  Peanuts, called groundnuts in Africa, are also a common ingredient.

We chose to make a typical Southern Cameroon dish, called Ndole.
It would be made in Cameroon with bitter greens native to the area and crayfish or mud prawns that are abundant.  We substituted shrimp and spinach but it would be good with kale or chicken too!

Ndole-
For the recipe you will need:

• 1 bag fresh spinach
• 1 lb shrimp- cleaned and tails off
• 1 cup natural peanut butter
• 1 onion- chopped
• 2 cups water
• 2 T fresh ginger- grated
• 2 cloves garlic- crushed
• 1 can diced tomatoes
• 1 T oil for frying onions

1. Cook the onions, garlic and the ginger in the oil for a few minutes until onions are softened
2. Add tomatoes and juice and reduce the heat to a simmer.
3. Add the spinach (if using kale it should be boiled for 5 minutes first) and let simmer until wilted
4. Add the peanut butter and water.  Stir to combine and cover and cook for 3 or 4 minutes.
5. Add the shrimp (or chicken) and cook until the shrimp is opaque which was about 5 minutes.  Chicken pieces would probably be about 10 or 15 minutes.
6.  Serve with rice or, if you've got the time, fu fu.

My brother and I thought this was really good.  My husband liked the sauce but had a hard time picking out all the onions and tomatoes since I chopped them small.  He liked the flavor but couldn't handle the texture- picky, picky!  The kids thought the rice was delicious but wouldn't eat the brown stuff with green bits- picky, picky!  One thing I will say about offering them all this exotic food is that now they eat the "other" food I offer them.  For example: Them- "I don't want to eat Ndole, it looks too weird!"  Me- "Ok, you don't have to eat it but you have to finish all your broccoli".  They think they got away with something and I got them to eat their broccoli :)

African Drum Project

Cameroonian Dance and Music

Music and dancing are very important parts of the religion and culture of the people of Cameroon.  There are over 200 traditional dances.  They are very choreographed and usually separate the men from the women and sometimes even separate people by social class.  Costumes and masks or other props are sometimes used to add to the drama.  Dance is used as a way of communicating to the spirits and also as a celebration of life, death, birth, adulthood, etc., etc.  I found a few YouTube videos that were fun.  The first shows traditional music and dance and the second was two women dancing who looked like they were really having a good time!   The music is fast and mostly seems to be a combination of rattles, drums and wooden xylophones, called balafons.  It really gets the dancers moving!

We needed a fun art project so we decided to make an African drum.  In Cameroon they would be made from wood and have a leather top.  They might be carved or beaded or painted.  Here at our house they are made out of recycled plastic cups and tape :)

African Drums
For the project you will need:

• 2 plastic cups per drum
• masking tape
• brown shoe polish (optional)
• markers

1. Glue or tape the two cups together bottom to bottom.
2. Cover open ends of cups with strips of tape and then cover the rest of the "drum" with bits of tape.

3. If you want your drum to look more authentic, rub a small amount of brown shoe polish over the masking tape and let it dry.  This will make it look like wood or leather.  We were too impatient to do this step!!






4. Use the markers to decorate with geometric patterns or other designs.


 
Have fun playing with your new drum!!

A whole group playing on them would sound great!!

The languages of Cameroon

Parlez -Vous Francais?

Well, you might if you lived in Cameroon, French is one of two official languages (English is the other) but it is also only one of the 230 different languages spoken in Cameroon.  Much of the French spoken by the Cameroonians would probably be very different from that on the streets of Paris, but I couldn't find any websites with the breakdown so we are going to learn French French not Cameroonian French :) The pronunciations are in parentheses. 

Hello- Bon jour (bone zhour)   Good bye - Au revoir (oh rer-vwahr)Yes - Oui (wee)   No - Non    Please - S'il vous plait (seel voo play)
Thank you- Merci (mare-see)  I Love You- Je T'aime (zhuh- tem)

red- rouge (roozh)  yellow- jaune (zhawn)   green- vert (vair)
blue- bleu (bloo)   purple - violet (vee-o-lay)  white- blanc (blan)
black - noir (noo-ar)

1- un     2- deux (do)    3- trois (twa)   4- quarte (ka-tre)
5- cinq (say-n-kay)  6- six (sees)   7- sept (set)   8- huit (weet)
9- neuf (noof)   10- dix (deese)

I was surprised how much French I actually knew once I started looking at the words, and also a little ashamed of myself that I had a Great- Grandmother and Grandmother who spoke fluent French and I didn't know more.  Of course, they lived in Wisconsin and I lived in California but I still should have learned it as a tribute to them!! Well, la pour vous Grandmeres!!  (Here's to you Grandmothers!)

On the Menu: Cameroonian Food

Well, kind of...

I have every intention of making a traditional Cameroonian dish but I wanted to share this little kid-friendly dish using common ingredients grown in Cameroon.  It's a simple little smoothie that is great for breakfast- some protein, some fruit, a little chocolate and milk- all the food groups :)  Now a real traditional breakfast in Cameroon is probably more along the lines of porridge, but I bet if they tried this smoothie they'd be enjoying it right along with my kids.

The Lucky Monkey Smoothie

For the recipe you will need:

• Bananas
• Peanut Butter (in Africa they are called groundnuts)
• Cocoa or chocolate syrup
• Milk
• Blender

1. Put a cut up banana, a tablespoon or so of peanut butter, some chocolate syrup or a little cocoa. and some milk in the blender.
2. Combine and serve.  Add ice or some vanilla ice cream to make it slushier and even more delicious!

YUMMY and NUTRITIOUS!! 







What lucky little monkeys I have :)

 

Week 33: Cameroon

Why Cameroon?

Well, I agree that Cameroon is a unique choice, but that's exactly why I picked it!  We all have some knowledge about the big countries already, but what do you know about Cameroon??  Do you even know where it is?  Let's learn together...

Cameroon is in the part of Africa known as the "armpit".  An unfortunate name for what seems like a beautiful part of the country. 

 The capital city is Yaounde, it's coordinates are 3.86°N / 11.51°E.   It was originally founded as a base for German ivory traders, but after WWI it became the territory of France.  The name Cameroon came from the Portuguese explorers who discovered that the rivers were teeming with crayfish and mud prawns- what they call "cameroes".   The country has been the territory of both England and France at times, which explains why the two official languages of the country are English and French.  Since I never got to my French lesson last week, we'll get that opportunity this week! 

The country has a tropical climate and receives a lot of rainfall, as a result they can produce many crops.  Coffee, bananas, cocoa and cotton are a few of their main exports, as well as, oil and other petroleum products. 

The flag of Cameroon reflects the wonders of the country.  It features a star and 3 bands of color.  Green symbolizes the lush vegetation.  Red is for independence and Yellow symbolizes the sunshine!

One of the main tourist attractions in Cameroon is Waza National Park where you can see wild giraffe, elephants and antelope living in their natural lands.  Hmmm, dare I try another giraffe project?

We will do a few fun projects this week and I hope we can learn more about this little known country!!