The Splendid Table - Salone

Ann and I celebrated my 64^th birthday by eating out for the first time in Sierra Leone.  The Paloma was recommended to us by the Lebanese owner of Kenema Supermarket.  We checked it out and liked the menu featuring Lebanese dishes along with some African fare and a few items with an American bent.   What could be more patriotic than hot dog pizza?  Returning the next evening, we found that we had the place to ourselves.  English Premier League soccer was playing on the large flat screen TV.  I felt that if I squinted a bit I could pretend I was in a Buffalo Wild Wings.

Ann sipped the local brew, Star, and I had tea as we dined on appetizers: hummus, chicken kebabs and roasted meat sticks.  All yummy.  I followed up with a beef shawarma wrap.  The whole dinner cost us 65,000 leones or just a little over $9.00.  According to the Peace Corps, our daily food budget is 24,000 leones, so our finances definitely took a hit.  We called upon our discretionary allowance to pick up the slack and planned to make the Paloma a monthly treat.

While we were waiting for our food, the manager of the hotel/restaurant, Mr. Ramadan, came to our table to introduce himself.  He is a very amiable and charming person.  He is one of 1500 to 2000 Lebanese living in Kenema (population ~ 150,000). I find myself interested in the stories of these ex-patriots, how they found their way to Salone, what makes them stay. Mr. R has been here 40 years.   A divorced father, he visits Lebanon for a month every year, meeting there with his daughter, who lives in Michigan.  He told us that there were many diamond dealers in town.  He looks at diamond dealing as a gamble, one that he is not willing to take.  He explained that one has to really know what he is doing if dealing in raw diamonds.  The big money is made in Antwerp where the diamonds are cut into more profitable pieces.  The cost for a couple to stay a night at the Paloma (rooms are comparable to a Super 8) is 350,000 leones, Wifi included.

If you read tour books on Salone (yes, they do exist – check out Bradt Guides) you will see the Capitol restaurant mentioned as THE place to go in Kenema.  Like the Paloma this restaurant is attached to a hotel of the same name.  Ann and I also gave this place a look. It happens to be on our usual walk to the regional Peace Corps office.  The restaurant is on the second floor, a covered terrace over-looking a large swimming pool filled with blue-green water.  There were lounging chairs scattered about the apron of the pool, but no one was swimming.  It would be impossible to tell if a crocodile were lurking at the bottom of the deep end.  The menu didn’t seem to be as interesting as the Paloma, but we will probably go there next month, just for the atmosphere.

So, what do we eat on a daily basis?  For breakfast the standard is oatmeal laced with raisins and dates.  A small banana, coffee, and grapefruit juice round out the meal.  Sometimes for variety we scramble eggs and serve them like an Egg McMuffin on part of a French-like baguette that we buy on a daily basis.  The eggs and the bread are plentiful and can be bought on the street throughout the city.  We have yet to figure out where these food items come from. 

For lunch it is pretty much peanut butter and jelly sandwiches or leftovers for me.  Ann has been creative coming up with all sorts of dishes for supper.  Probably her most daring endeavor so far has been a spaghetti with peas and carrots topped off with an ample serving of Vache Qui Rit.  Laughing Cow cheese spread is the Velveeta of Europe.  We first encountered it 40 years ago in Zaire.  Both of us have fond memories of special breakfasts of VQR on bread with strawberry jam on top.  This time around we are not so enthralled, but still we keep a steady supply in our larder.  The VQR motto, “With cheese and laughter, growing up just gets better,” would serve Wisconsin well.

Ann has also tried her hand at traditional African fare such as, rice with granut (peanut) sauce.  The Peace Corps cookbook, “Where There Is No Restaurant,” has been helpful with numerous ideas.  I give the recipe for granut sauce below.  Ann has also made other excellent meals with rice as the main ingredient: curried rice, fried rice, black beans and rice,….).  Rice is the staple starch in the Salone diet.  Sierra Leone consumes so much rice it must import it to meet the needs of the population, even though there is plenty of acreage suitable for rice growing in this very wet country with numerous rivers and swamps.  Cassava root is another carbohydrate mainstay.  This is pulverized into flour in a mata-odo.  When mixed with hot water it makes a dough ball that has the consistency of Playdough.  To eat it one just pinches off a bite size portion and dips it into a sauce made from granut, cassava leaf, or potato leaf.

Maintaining protein requirements takes some doing.  Peanuts and eggs help.  Our arteries are thankful that cheese is very expensive.  We purchased a 200 gram wedge of English cheddar for 42,000 leones.  That is close to $14/lb!   Chicken is plentiful, but we are not willing to slaughter our own.  Fortunately, the supermarkets carry a limited supply of imported frozen chicken (ours was from Brazil).  Frozen ground beef is also available, but is expensive.  One can buy skewers of grilled beef and chicken on the street.  Fish is by far the most common animal protein source in the country.  Again, much of it is imported.  Ann and I witnessed a whole semi-trailer load of frozen fish from China, being unloaded at the grand market one Saturday. 

For snacks almost every day we enjoy a small bag of popcorn purchased on the street from a vendor who has his own machine.  His stall is close to our house and we can find him most days popping up a storm under a large umbrella with the lettering OBAMA on one side.  Peanuts, raw, roasted, or in the shell are always part of the everyday street fare.  I also enjoy little packets of fried banana chips.  They are tasty, but don’t try to eat too many at once.  I ate two packages one day and had to put out the grease fires in my belly later that night with antacid tablets from my PC issued medical kit.  Finally, Choithra’s Supermarket has king-size Snickers bars that come neatly divided into two equal parts, one for Ann and one for me.

Granut Sauce

2 T oil

1 t hot pepper

1 onion, chopped

3 cloves garlic, chopped

1T fresh ginger, minced

3 C water

1 chicken boullion cube

1 T soy sauce

1 150 g tomato paste

3T peanut butter

Saute pepper, onions, garlic and ginger in oil. Add rest of the ingredients and cook for 20 minutes.