Well, I wanted to do something different. I can’t say I’ve ever heard anything good about African food, and with everyone over there starving it must not be too good. But I’m always up for something new (or old, if it involves the porn stars coming back over.)
I have some friends I knew socially and from some trade shows and other places. The usual crowd didn’t show. So I read up on African food. It does vary somewhat over the continent — Africa is a big place. But it generally involves tortillas, rice, a small amount of meat — probably chicken. And a lot of spicy sauce. African meat can have a tendency to be a bit rancid.
One positive is there is really no global food entities, so what food you do get tends to be local and farm raised. It’s a little hard to shop for African in Toronto, so I went to the ethnic store, which is more like the Mexican store. I picked up some tortillas; I got some rice. I doubt the rice was African but it was a fragrant type I’d never had before, so I went with it. I picked up some chicken (the fresh was probably less authentic, but I figured I could handle the difference). I talked to a guy there and they did have some herbs and a sauce that were of an African variety. The sauce was dark, and the herbs were mostly cumin and coriander.
I found some African beer too. I can’t pronounce it so I won’t even try to spell it. After getting home, I realized I had no clue how to cook African so I did it kind of like Mexican. Fresh tortillas stuffed with rice… I put some tomatoes in there though I don’t know if that’s authentic. I had some green herbs that I sliced fine and put that in there. And I made the cause with the powdered spices and what I bought from the bottle. I let it stew slow and it was actually very fragrant and nice. After cooking the chicken I doused it in the source and into the tortilla it went.
The guys showed. We normally start eating and drinking at the same time, but they were so curious about the beer we started with the liquid dinner. The beer was actually pretty good! It reminded me of a European beer — light colored but flavorful. I wasn’t too scared of the food because I figure the problem with African food is lack of it and health — not taste. So we all started chowing down and it was really good! The spicy sauce was great – kind of like Indian but less heat and more flavor. Thicker too.
So this was one of my milder nights but still a good time. I talked with some of the guys about my poker site. Most of them wanted a sportsbook addition. I think that’s a good idea. Sports betting isn’t frowned on like other gambling. I told them about the porn stars who visited the other night. They all acted like they thought I was full of it, but then they all seemed extra excited to come over again. Maybe I’ll start charging admission!
