Chicken has always been a delicacy, as common as they can be found in the backyards and coops in homes, rural or urban. Almost everyone I know in Ghana has kept a chicken or two free range, which has eventually ended up in a soup or stew. Ghanaian household chickens are tasty, having fed on organic food, patiently sought out while exercising. But a traveler once complained to me that he found the African free-ranger chicken skinny and tough. 'Yes', I said. 'Skinny and tough and tasty!'
There was a time in Ghana, in the seventies that the term 'Poultry' came into common use. This was when I first became aware of Pomadze, the big chicken business in Accra. This was also the time when many small poultry businesses began popping up in backyards with chicken houses made of wood and wiring. Then, people bought day-old chicks to rear for eggs and for meat. At that time we also learned the culinary distinctions, layers and broilers.
Ghanaians like their chicken marinated in hot spicy sauces and fried, otherwise they like chicken in soup served with fufu and also in stews served with rice. Lately we also enjoy the chicken and chips thing. One place I remember for chicken snacks was Podium in Kumasi. There we dipped the chicken in Ghanaian fried pepper sauce.
In my boarding secondary school, true school feasts were celebrated with chicken. I think they were the only times we ate chicken in boarding school. Cynical students counted fewer crows in the sky on school feasts and we joked that we were being served crow meat. I'm pretty sure we were served chicken.
My next blog will be a chicken dish probably chicken light soup.
What is it about that special bird which turns ordinary light-soup into celebration fare? I think my mother made the best chicken light soup with that special herb ("akoko mesa"). Basil is the closest thing I know to that ubiquitously growing fragrant herb.
There was a time in Ghana, in the seventies that the term 'Poultry' came into common use. This was when I first became aware of Pomadze, the big chicken business in Accra. This was also the time when many small poultry businesses began popping up in backyards with chicken houses made of wood and wiring. Then, people bought day-old chicks to rear for eggs and for meat. At that time we also learned the culinary distinctions, layers and broilers.
Ghanaians like their chicken marinated in hot spicy sauces and fried, otherwise they like chicken in soup served with fufu and also in stews served with rice. Lately we also enjoy the chicken and chips thing. One place I remember for chicken snacks was Podium in Kumasi. There we dipped the chicken in Ghanaian fried pepper sauce.
In my boarding secondary school, true school feasts were celebrated with chicken. I think they were the only times we ate chicken in boarding school. Cynical students counted fewer crows in the sky on school feasts and we joked that we were being served crow meat. I'm pretty sure we were served chicken.
My next blog will be a chicken dish probably chicken light soup.
What is it about that special bird which turns ordinary light-soup into celebration fare? I think my mother made the best chicken light soup with that special herb ("akoko mesa"). Basil is the closest thing I know to that ubiquitously growing fragrant herb.
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