Help! I need your advice, my African bloggy friends – I have 6 girls coming to my house tonight for dinner. It is book group night and we are going to talk about “Things Fall Apart” the African novel by Chimua Achebe.

He mentions “foo foo” frequently in the book – I think it is a thick porridge-like paste.

I need a very simple African dish to cook for dinner (preferably including yams).

My friend who is coming sent me a text yesterday saying:

“Are we all eating foo-foo tonight?”

My reply simply said:

“That just sounds rude”.

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8 Comments
  • Miranda
    March 4, 2009

    Oooh, umm. Don’t really know any yam recipes. I suppose you could just boil them but that may be minging. Boiled sweet potatoes are yummy and easy. My favourite is rape leaves and peanuts. You can use spinach instead. Cook it up with crushed peanuts or peanut butter til it goes gooey. Sounds gross – I’m not very good at writing down recipes! Nsima/Ugali/Sadza you could make – maybe look for a polenta recipe? Ho hum, not much help. Good luck though and look forward to hearing how it went (with some pics of the grub maybe?!)

    Oh word veri is salat. You could make one of those sliced tomato, cabbage and onion salads with loads of lemon juice and salt?

  • family affairs
    March 4, 2009

    Thanks Miranda – will try that spinach and peanut butter concoction – sounds good Lx

  • karen
    March 4, 2009

    oh yes, foo foo does sound very familiar from Chinua Achebe. I am quite sure you also googled it, as I did (being from wrong non-yam part of africa). But anyway…I found this nice recipe, including a rather lovely traditional proverb to go with it!

    http://www.africawithin.com/recipes/yam_foofoo.htm

    Hope you have a great book-night!

  • family affairs
    March 4, 2009

    Thank you very much Karen – I have printed off the recipe – thats perfect as just made with sweet potatoes and yes, an interesting proverb – wonder what it means! Lx

  • Nicola
    March 4, 2009

    wish I could help – I just thought you were refering to little bunny foo-foo, which has nothing to do with African food fare!

  • Janelle
    March 4, 2009

    oh damnit damnit i’m too late….fuck. well. left a mealie meal ball recipe at mine…just do anything with mealie meal and its considered african. its, um, versatile. have a wickedly good evening lulu! and sorry so late! xxx j

  • family affairs
    March 4, 2009

    Not too late – thank you so much – sounds compllicated…maybe because I can’t picture it in my head…Lxx

  • Cold Spaghetti
    March 4, 2009

    No advice, but I love that book. 🙂