Ghanaian Food and Drink

     Herbal Drinks     

Pekese bitters

Prekese is the Twi language name for the tree Tetrapleura tetraptera(Leguminosae); Prekese herbal drink has extracts of Tetrapleura tetraptera fruit in basically gin. The fruit is low in sodium, rich in potassium,iron, magnesium , phosphorus, and vitamin C. The dried fruit which is available in Ghanaian stores in London is used in cooking.

Alomo Bitters

Biological study has shown that Prekese extract has some useful therapeutic action easing hypertension, and Asthma. Active constituents include Scopletin which appears to have a relaxing action on smooth muscle, helping to ease constriction in the Bronchioles of the lung, and on constricted blood vessels .Research has shown that Tetrapleura tetraptera also has anti-ulcerogenic, mollusicidal, and anti-microbial action.

Alomo has been around in Ghana for many years & is again a mixture of a spirit & herbal extracts. "Alomo" in Twi means love; enhanced sexual function is claimed as one of the benefits of drinking the spirit.

For research & development , and the advance of science the editor at great risk of life & limb , subjected himself to a tot every evening for a week. The editor isn't impotent so i couldn't comment on the effect of Alomo when there is no erectile function, but I can say is that Alomo definitely enhances sexual function particularly on erectile stamina.

Alomo works without any perceivable stress on the body. i.e it doesn't work by increasing the heart rate or as far as I can tell, or by increasing blood pressure. I haven't heard from others or experienced any contraindication either. Alomo is available in Ghanaian stores in London such as West Green Rd, N15 and Leytonestone High Rd, E11.

Some people are dismissive of the effect of herbs ,but i would simply remind them that acetyl salicylic acid, the active ingredient of Aspirin is a derivative of an extract from the White Willow Tree, also extracts from Digitalis (the Latin name for the Foxglove plant) have been used for treatment of people with heart problems for many years by the U.K medical establishment

     Food dishes     

It might be assumed by those that have not traveled to Ghana that perhaps some foods might be "hot" as in Chilli because other hot countries like India have hot and spicy food. In fact i have found this to be predominately not the case; a Tilapia fish for instance I had in the Mokola area of Accra which was already cooking so I couldn't say don't make it too spicy had very little chili but had garlic and ginger flavors.

Some dishes i found it hard to get used to included stews & soups, since where i am from in the North of England i associate having soup when its "Brass Monkey Weather"

Like most dishes around the world there is usually some type of high carbohydrate food which accompanies the main meat or stew dish.

Packets of Fufu

"Fufu" is a food usually consisting of plantain. Traditionally the plantain would be boiled and then put into a big ceramic mortar & pounded mercilessly with a wooden pestle about 4 feet long. conveniently Fufu also comes in a rapide form as the French would say coming in small packets.

In this case its a just a matter of putting the dry flour in a saucepan & adding water; the paste is then stirred & cooked until it arrives at a firm dough consistency.Fufu is common in the Asante areas such as Kumasi, but other doughy accompaniments can be found such as "Kenkey"and "Banku" which are more commonly eaten by Fanti tribes in Accra with fish.

Kenkey and Banku are similar in consistency to Fufu except inside of plantain they are made from ground corn.Kenkey traditionally comes wrapped in corn leaves, personally i prefer Banku since it is lighter i.e less stodgy.

A root vegetable that takes the place of potatoes i guess in Ghanaian cookery is the humble Yam. I used to see yams in the vegetable racks outside multinational shops years ago when i was at University in London, but didn't have a clue what they were or and wouldn't know what to do with them if given one either. Yams as I i have now found are quite easy to prepare & cook and are a great alternative to the English potato.

Typical combination of a boiled egg a fish stew , and accompanying yam

They also have about three times the fibre content of skinless potatoes. You can not eat the skin of the yam , and thus must take off the skin with a knife. The sizes of the pieces are about the same as if you were cooking potatoes though. The yam pieces are simply boiled in water with a little salt & cook in about 15-20 minutes.

The photograph to the right is of a meal I was served in Accra and is a fish stew which had a dry consistency & contained mackerel. Its not uncommon to have a boiled egg served as an addition to the stew & yam.

Waakye is a mixture of rice and black eyed peas (cowbeans) which is cooked with dried Sorghum stalks , giving it a distinctive flavor & colour.

Dishes to look out for in Ghana include:
Palmfruit Soup- containing crabs & fish
Nkati Kwan(groundnut soup)-the base of the soup is peanut
Lamu dtsi ( Fresh Fish Soup) -contains Tilapia fish
Koobi Stew- made from dried and salted Tilapia
Jollof Rice - A bit like a Ghanaian version of Chinese special fried rice.