There are certain foods that are more about the memories they evoke than the actual taste of the food. Like those candy necklaces that remind me of scary movies as a kid (like Swiss Family Robinson and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang)and red koolaid that brings back memories of camp.
So it is with fufu, the favorite dish of Togo. It's not so much about the taste, since it's mostly tasteless. And it's definitely not about the texture, which most closely resembles the paste that came in gallon pots back in first grade. You either love it or you hate it.
And we love it.
When both my kids named fufu as their favorite food in their comments to my blog, I started thinking about making it. We can't get the right kind of yams here, so that wasn't worth pursuing. We've tried making it with potato flakes, but it just tastes too potato-y.
Dad went on a quest to several Asian markets and found a root called yuca, not to be confused with yucca. A taste test and a little research revealed that yuca is the same as manioc and cassava. I went to our neighborhood Asian market, but they didn't have any fresh produce. I showed the shop owner a picture of taro leaves on a can and tried to make him understand that I was looking for the tubers that went with that plant. He didn't even speak enough English to tell me he didn't speak English. I came home with a bag of frozen purple yams that were... purple.
I finally found the manioc, I had the time to spend on an African dinner, and tonight we had fufu with a chicken sauce like Dela makes. I even sliced up a fresh pineapple. Jessica was a little disappointed that I didn't make Dodzi's eggplant sauce, but she still swallowed down 2 balls of fufu.
It was a fun meal.
Now that I know how to make it, who wants to come eat fufu with us?
5 comments:
well I should already be on your short list of invitees ... so count me in. I'll even bring the latest World Cup Togo game ... assuming it is during World Cup that is.
I DO! (Sorry about using my outdoor voice.)
how did you pound it, Patty?
Thanks for the info. We had been wondering how we would survive American w/out fufu.
Jenna, I'm afraid to say I pounded it in the kitchenaid, which steals somewhat from the authenticity, but, alas, if we waited for me to pound it, we just ate out last fufu. I should say to buy small tubers since the bigger ones have some pretty substantial fibers in them. If you make some, miadu nu nyuie lo.
Oh, and I heard of a company in Kentucky that distributes red palm oil, but I haven't looked into that yet.
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