My Aunt (Part I)
My aunts never smiles. She’s always mumbling to herself, complaining about one thing or the other. And she is stingy with money, love and food.
I don’t care much for the absence of smile, or the constant bemoaning. One of the things that it is getting to me is the stinginess. Because it means that often I go hungry. And it’s not because the family finances are tight (she‘s a program manager for a foreign NGO, my uncle runs his private hospital), it’s just because my aunt is stingy to the point of meanness.
Right now, after lunch, I am still hungry. They don’t do breakfast in this house, and lunch was a meagre plate of left-over casserole. The solution will be to send someone buy me some food later on. Things aren’t’t so bad today though because we have fruits in the house. A very rare occasion indeed, because they tell you fruits and vegetable make you fat. Not eating white rice 5 days a week though. I’m craving vegetables. Spinach, aubergines, carrots, leeks, green beans, you name it, I miss it. It here that for the 1st time ever I ate a Djollof rice without any sort of vegetables in it. Just rice cooked in tomato purée. What happened to the cabbage, the carrots, the peppers? I'll never know…
We eat our akoumé (sort of polenta made with corn flour and staple food here) nearly dry because the stew must last for a few meals even if it means adding water to it to augment quantities (and killing most of the flavours).
I felt uneasy at the idea of buying my own food and cook it for myself but after today to the hell with inhibitions. My body is already telling me I’m lacking vitamins and minerals: I’m having bad cramps in my legs at night, I'm thinking magnesium deficiency.
Buying my own stuff for my own use will perfectly fit into the system already in place in the house: the husband gets steaks and vegetables, grilled fish and fruits, the only son gets whatever he wants, the teenage girls (who barely eat anything anyways) 2 cousins living here and me get rice, cheap meat cuts, tripe (cant stand the smell, taste or look of it… on those nights it means eating plain white rice), skinny chicken wings and feet. Missing my mother’s cooking, my guardian’s Italian cuisine and the little dishes I’d cook myself miss tasty creative food. missing food prepared with love .
I don’t care much for the absence of smile, or the constant bemoaning. One of the things that it is getting to me is the stinginess. Because it means that often I go hungry. And it’s not because the family finances are tight (she‘s a program manager for a foreign NGO, my uncle runs his private hospital), it’s just because my aunt is stingy to the point of meanness.
Right now, after lunch, I am still hungry. They don’t do breakfast in this house, and lunch was a meagre plate of left-over casserole. The solution will be to send someone buy me some food later on. Things aren’t’t so bad today though because we have fruits in the house. A very rare occasion indeed, because they tell you fruits and vegetable make you fat. Not eating white rice 5 days a week though. I’m craving vegetables. Spinach, aubergines, carrots, leeks, green beans, you name it, I miss it. It here that for the 1st time ever I ate a Djollof rice without any sort of vegetables in it. Just rice cooked in tomato purée. What happened to the cabbage, the carrots, the peppers? I'll never know…
We eat our akoumé (sort of polenta made with corn flour and staple food here) nearly dry because the stew must last for a few meals even if it means adding water to it to augment quantities (and killing most of the flavours).
I felt uneasy at the idea of buying my own food and cook it for myself but after today to the hell with inhibitions. My body is already telling me I’m lacking vitamins and minerals: I’m having bad cramps in my legs at night, I'm thinking magnesium deficiency.
Buying my own stuff for my own use will perfectly fit into the system already in place in the house: the husband gets steaks and vegetables, grilled fish and fruits, the only son gets whatever he wants, the teenage girls (who barely eat anything anyways) 2 cousins living here and me get rice, cheap meat cuts, tripe (cant stand the smell, taste or look of it… on those nights it means eating plain white rice), skinny chicken wings and feet. Missing my mother’s cooking, my guardian’s Italian cuisine and the little dishes I’d cook myself miss tasty creative food. missing food prepared with love .
posted by Kékéli at 13:10
2 Comments:
Depuis quand Laetita cuisine-t-elle?????????? Tu ne confonds pas plutôt avec la cuisine de Fina, Massanvi, et toutes les nombreuses tantes et cousines et oncles et cousins(j'ai des photos d'Omer et Fina pilant le foufou) du côté paternel qui ont partagé les fourneaux du 35 CB avenue des Flamboyants?
Des fois faut quand même pas pousser mémé dans les orties....
Je ne pousse pas mémé dans les orties. Si si elle cuisine sinon tes soeurs seraient mortes de faim depuis longtemps! Elle m'a meme donné la recette des Botokoin que j'ai préparés de mes petites mains à Birmingham. Rien que pour toi je vais commencer à poster des recettes...
Post a Comment
<< Home