Day 16: Maffa

I am not a gourmet. Or even a gourmette (the feminine…which I just made up). But what I lack in discerning palette, I make up for in willingness. Setting aside the three things I absolutely do not like and will avoid--raw onions of various varieties, raw garlic and Campbell’s Cream of Tomato Soup--I will try just about anything.

All other food types—animal, seafood, vegetable, fruit, dessert and pie, which is its own food group—I will try for sport and probably like. The best example I can offer is guinea pig, a native dish of Peru. While there in 2000, I picked out my own guinea pig from a good-sized flock that was wandering around in the kitchen of a private home, and later that evening, I ate him/her for dinner. Didn’t think it was particularly easy to eat or even very tasty, but I did it.

So, here I am in Senegal and it’s an adventure in eating. I’ve already told you about the katchoupa, which Mami served a couple of Sundays ago. And I’ve also tried yassa, which is a traditional Senegalese dish from the Casamance region in the south. It’s a spicy marinated chicken stewed with vegetables and served over rice. And last Saturday night, I had pigeon…yes, pigeon—not dove, not quail—pigeon…that bird we hate in New York City. It was a little like guinea pig…lots of little bones, not much meat and very little flavor.

Today, we had maffa for lunch. Imagine stew beef, simmered for a couple of hours in a thick, tomato-y peanut sauce…sauce so thick that it’s like liquefied peanut butter…served over rice. Paul admitted that it’s his favorite food and that we were having it while Nathalie was traveling because she thinks it’s not healthy. I think the doctor’s right, but like so many other foods that should be on the “do not” list, it was really, really yummy.

And just to show Paul, Suzette and Ieta how gutsy I really am, I ate it with the hottest pepper condiment ever to pass these lips: 15 on a 12-point scale! Even they eat it with caution.

And speaking of caution, Paul’s final word on maffa was that it causes coma, which really means you have to take a nap after you eat it.