Food and Drinks in Africa

One of the main crops on Santo Antão is suger cane. The cane sugar that is consumed on the islands is however imported from Alagoas, Brazil, because the Cape Verdeans have a better use for their sugar cane: making Grogue. This often very locally brewed alcohol is a type of rum. When hiking through the villages of Santo Antão, you are bound to run into such a small distillery. The people will happily show you the process of distilling the sugar cane and might even let you try some grogue. First, the suger cane goes through a press to extract the sugar cane juice. The dried sugar canes are eventually used as a fuel for the distillation process.

Chibuku is dirt cheap maize (and sorghum) beer cherished throughout Southern Africa. It's sold in paper cartons with easily recognisable red and blue stripes enclosing its catchy slogan "Chibuku international beer shake-shake". The fermented liquid is thick with lumpy bits, so a strong shake-shake is indeed necessary before opening. The first time you come across Chibuku is probably when you see scraps of Chibuku cartons lying around in the streets, giving a hint of where the local Chibuku joint is located. It's theoretically possible to get drunk on the stuff, but chances are your stomack will have had enough before you reach any level of intoxication. But give it a go, it will earn you street credits with the local drunks.

Moroccans are Muslims, so they do not drink alcohol - and alcohol is generally hard to come by. Instead, you are offered everywhere their special mint tea. You can find it at restaurants, if you buy something in the souk, with the Berber people in the mountains and on the market where mint tea dominates. The tea consists of green tea supplemented with a big bunch of fresh mint and sometimes sage. There is a special ritual surrounding the drinking and the way the locals make the tea, and it suddenly becomes quite solemn to drink tea. The Moroccans, however, are very fond of sugar, so be sure to ask for sugar free, if you do not share their sweet tooth.

Nshima is that gooey lump that is served with pretty much any meal throughout Africa. It's made of maize flour and a bit of water which is boiled into a porridge and then paddled constantly under heat until the texture reaches a stickiness that makes it impossible to get off the spoon. Since it doesn't taste much, it's often served with a small selection of relish or hot sauce along with some meat or fish. The tricky part for untrained nshima eaters is that it's eaten with the bare hands - a messy affair if you don't master the art of scooping with your fingers. Since nshima fills up the stomach cheaply, it's the stable food in many parts of Africa, where it goes under different names like sadza, pap, ugali and fufu.