Eating in Gabon

What's cooking?
One of the best ways to pay respect to another culture and its people is in the sharing and eating of food. You honor someone by accepting and eating their offer of food. Hopefully you will have enjoyed it and asked for more, making the cook very happy. As a volunteer I saw a lot of strange stuff on my plate. I have eaten mushy caterpillars to porcupines to pangolin and fiery peppers. The villagers were always honored when I came into their homes and ate their food. The colonial power would never do such a thing, the local dishes weren't good enough for them. What little these people had they always gave you, the guest, the best and biggest piece. They would kill the chicken they were saving for hard times. These villagers were living from hand to mouth and praying for a good harvest or hunt for their next meal. The next photos show you what's for dinner. Bon Appetit!

market in Oyem

^{Villagers bring their fresh grown fruits and vegetables
to the market place.

Pineapples, oranges, plantains, avocados,
garlic, limes, corn, piment, bananas, eggplants, palm nuts, peanuts, taro
and manioc leaves and tubers. Though not in these pictures,
you could usually find a slaughtered cow, goat, pig, or bush meat
in the market.}

^{This
parrot, recently shot, will become a meal in the village or make a trip
to the market in the city. Growing fish in the villages was one way of having
plenty to eat and a cash crop.The villager can not rely on a dwindling
jungle animal supply while fish culture would fill this protein
need.}

^{Beer Label}
^{When you are not drinking the sugar cane brew, that goes right
to your head, there is always a warm beer that will do it in equal
time. Regab was brewed in Oyem across the street from where I lived.
This beer was a lot stronger than what we drink in the states. One glass
of the warm stuff could make you fly and it was sold in a liter bottle, if
I remember correctly. Unfortunately one was usually obligated to drink the
beer when you couldn't trust the water.

More bush meat, a gazelle. This one
was caught in a trap set in the jungle. He is looking a little stiff
and hasn't benefited from refrigeration. This was a common meat that I was
fed in the village. I can't remember how it tasted but it wasn't bad.
I am sitting in the back of a truck on my way to Bitam to visit other
Peace Corps volunteers. The gazelle was part of the cargo in the bush
taxi. When travelling, something from the animal kingdom (dead or
alive) could be next to you, over your head, or under your seat. It was
never a dull moment.}