I must admit, making the transition from the “Land of Wal-Mart Supercenter, Costco and Sam’s Club” to the “Land of a Thousand Specialty Shops” is a bit daunting at first. However, I’ve found a couple of shops nearby to provide me with the groceries I need, and the “Grand Marché” in Pointe Noire has anything and everything, IF you know where to look! There are literally hundreds of shops, many with identical items for sale at slightly different prices! Depending on the shopkeeper with whom one has developed a relationship, the prices can sometimes be discounted quite nicely. Janice has been here long enough to have her favorite venders in the market, so she took me around yesterday and introduced me to some of them. We also found a new vendor who gave us an excellent price for some of the beautiful African fabrics we are using, so God was definitely directing our steps! We were able to quickly find the essentials we were looking for, beginning with a safe place to park her vehicle! The area in front of her favorite fabric vendor was completely clear, a very unusual thing for a Saturday morning! Monsieur Omar agreed to keep an eye on the vehicle while we did our other shopping. He even sent one of his employees to purchase a mosquito net for me, since the shop for those was several blocks away! Praise the Lord for His provision, even in the smallest things we need!
The fruits and vegetables here are abundant, and fairly inexpensive. I have already tried a fresh pineapple, fresh mango and fresh papaya, as well as the local, sweet bananas. But one of the most amazing things I have come across is the avocados here! They are huge!
I was given one to try, so I decided to make guacamole… I had peppers, onions, salt and a “citron” (not sure if it’s a small lemon or lime, but it was sure good!) so I had all the ingredients.
When I purchased the small red peppers, the lady warned me that it was very hot (très chaud!), but coming from the land of jalapeños, I wondered, “…how hot can it be?” So as I was chopping up the first half of the pepper, I popped a very small piece into my mouth and chomped down on it…. OH WOW!!!! WAS IT HOT!!!! I grabbed a bottle of water and guzzled it down! I decided then that half of the pepper was plenty for my guacamole instead of the whole thing like I first intended! (Just so you know how hot it really was, an hour later my upper lip was still sweating!) Anyway, the guacamole turned out really good, and I made a discovery that I’ll keep using… if you put one scoop of mayonnaise into your guacamole, it doesn’t turn black! (It also helps if your peppers are a little too hot!) Nice little trick, since that ONE avocado made a lot of guac!
I had found a Lebanese flatbread earlier in the week that I used instead of a tortilla, added some cheese, rice and beans and voila! A burrito! It was quite tasty, if I do say so myself!
Bon appetit!
Lesson learned: Just like everything else on the mission field, flexibility in the kitchen is the key to success!
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