Fufu Finale'

We are in Washington DC gathering information for our internship. It will be several days before our plane departs Pittsburgh for Monrovia.

“What’s your favorite Liberian food?”

“Fufu and soup.”

“What’s Fufu?”

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We order Fufu at a restaurant in Monrovia. It is our first week of the internship and some co-workers invited the three of us to lunch.

Kenneth takes a wonderful picture of his Fufu to post on the blog. I try to eat the Fufu but it’s difficult.

“You don’t chew it, you swallow it with the soup.”

It isn’t the taste or texture that is causing me trouble. My stomach is upset and not used to these ingredients or these spices yet. I barely have a fifth of my meal before I stop eating. I vow to eat a meal of Fufu before I leave Liberia.

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We are in Trice, a local restaurant with a rooftop bar and decent prices.

Trice serves very good Fufu according to Kenneth. Also according to Kenneth the Fufu goes down easier with a stout beer.

It is our last week in Liberia. I am working on my ‘bucket-seat list’, a list of things I want to do in Liberia before I get on a plane back to the USA. Fufu is one of the remaining items on my bucket-seat list.

I feel ready. I have been eating Liberian food for two months now.

My Fufu comes with a delicious goat soup. I learn to take smaller bits of the Fufu on my spoon and then dip the spoon in my soup. I eat almost the entire meal.

The meal is filling enough that one serving of Fufu and soup could feed a person for an entire day.

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This is my final post on Culture and Food in Liberia. It is fitting that the topic is Fufu because Fufu was the first Liberian food I learned about before the trip.

A definition of Fufu from thefreedictionary.com states:

n. Fu-fu

A thick, doughlike West African food made by boiling and pounding a starchy vegetable such as yam, plantain, or cassava. [1]

For a recipe to make Fufu follow this link:

AfricanFoods.co.uk[2]

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[1] thefreedictionary.com

[2] AfricanFoods.co.uk