West African Food - EXOTIC DELICACY in GHANA!

good morning I hope you're having an amazing day at smart Queens I'm in Ghana West Africa and today we're going to El Mina which is a historically significant city on the Atlantic Ocean we're gonna meet up with a host mom who's going to take us to the fish market we might find some other delicacies to eat on the way and then we're gonna cook and eat some incredible Ghanaian food it's gonna be a great day and I'm excited to share with you today [Music] we just stopped on the side of the highway they know a lot of bush meat from the night sketch but mainly what we're searching out is a grass cutter which is a grater cane rat which is it's really a delicacy in Ghana we got the grass cutter I'm very excited I think well it's fresh so we gotta eat it today during our our fishing food meal from El Mina we're also gonna have a grass cutter you made it through Cape Coast driving through Cape Coast and we're on our way to as Nina which is a few kilometers west [Music] all right we have just arrived in Elmina we're gonna meet up with our host mom before we go to the fish market and an to the coast thank you nice to meet you thank you for having us thank you very much our mission here to learn about a culture and in the field and sure we want to have some grass guitar with granite soup and a mucho for dinner so probably after shopping with the fishing we come back and then move I don't mind I'll get a place I help you to do vinegar and he consumed everything from start to finish and thank you very much for allowing us use your home yes thank you very much for hosting us and now we're gonna head to the fish market here in El Mina oh yeah I can go in the middle to kick everybody say hello to him Manuel hi we're gonna be hanging out with him for the next few days we're going shopping for the for the food and we're gonna we're gonna see the fish market and the boats we have just arrived at the well actually it's right at the castle but this is where the market is in Elmina so we're gonna go to the market we're gonna go to the fish market you can smell the fish in the air you can smell that salty salty air and it's the castle over here this is a bird's eye view of El Mina the market area you can see the inlet of water comes in the we're really close to the KOAT women we're on the coast but then this is some water that comes in where the boats dock where they bring their fresh catch it's just a sea of colourful canoes wooden boats we're just getting into the market now oh yeah and you immediately you can really smell the fish it's colorful it's vibrant it's a little chaotic it's a real overdose of senses the colors the smells the sounds you do have to be very careful taking photos here some people don't want their photo taken but overall it's quite spacious most people are friendly yeah this is the the full fish market experience of a Mina that's for sure [Music] we moved across the street now here to buy some vegetables we're gonna get some it's it looks like a yellow eggplant we bought everything we need we're leaving the market now but yeah this is just the raw this is the real deal fish market on our way back to the house now to eat lunch okay thank you [Music] mama is gonna get started making the dishes come at all heito and she's chopping up first a big yam that's gonna be our base starch I really love hand-painted signs and this is one of the coolest back here all mighty photos and then I didn't know they were gonna add the eggs right to the pot with the yams they cover it with a piece of plastic and then she added on the cover and that's gonna boil and it's so it's gonna be a yam Plus egg dish we're gonna let the yams boil until they're finished but we're outside in the backyard now this is where we're gonna cook this evening for dinner we're gonna eat the grass cutter which I'm very looking forward to and the fish as well and Bernard is gonna cut us down some fresh coconuts thank you very much it was hanging on the tree one minute ago Oh oh it's so good yeah it's really nice it's really sweet just a hint of sourness yeah I mean there really is nothing that refreshes and gets those because your your juices flowing again like a coconut hole open my my coconut yeah he did cut it I wasn't I wasn't that strong to pull it apart by myself and then you got the all-natural spoon a piece of the husk too to scoop it out that's as good as it gets so you like to eat grass cutter the Chavez especially okay it's really a specialty the yams are all cooked she took out the that boiled eggs and now she is just mashing the yam YUM but after she mashed up the yam then separately they boiled some palm oil with onions brought that to a simmer and then she poured in some of that hot oil into the yam that's kind of like hydrating it kind of like holding it together because you could see that the the yam works a little like real starchy and kind of dry but rehydrating it with that that flavorful palm oil [Music] so you make a bowl like that okay so yeah we grab an egg and grab some of the yam so yeah oh and you can see the onions in there as well hey this looks amazing yeah you can feel its starchy and kind of dry make like a make a little ball like that I have that dry yam texture but you can taste the flavor of the palm oil it is it almost you would almost think it's pumpkin from the color from the orange color now I'm gonna grab some of the egg mix it with some of the yam as well yeah so that's the combination that's the meal combination yes yes you see you can also eat it with ground nuts so just got some ground nuts which are peanuts and then you I'm gonna take a second helping another egg with some peanuts sprinkled on top go go mm-hmm Oh with the ground that's it that's really good cuz you've got them the yam is so dry that it's kind of fluffy but then you've got the crunch of the peanuts the contrast the textures it's a little bit of a dry dish but it was really an honor to have a chance to eat that home-cooked and it's a it's a very special dish next we are on our way to elmina castle and the Sun is Sun is at full full boy seeing full blazing heat right now [Music] we just made it back to the house we're getting started cooking for dinner tonight I and first step were Emmanuel is taking the grass cutter and you have to burn off the the hair so he's just roasting it over the fire burning off that hair to prepare it yeah well we dug a little Bush me ain't gonna this just really really one wish meets the delicacy nice as emmanuel and bernard are preparing the grass cutter mama is frying up the fish and she's frying it in coconut oil's know that a room of coming off of it and I think she tossed you in a handful of onions for that aroma the onions the the coconut oil the frying fish that smells incredible and I just love how she's using a knife to flip over the fish she has some amazing chef skills pepper soup with only the grass cutter you guys better today they're using some of the grass cutter to make a grass cutter light soup with onions it's gonna be a pepper soup and then the remaining portion of the grass cutter with some of the fish is gonna go into a groundnut soup which is another dish both of which I'm very excited to try this is for grinding we are going to use all these put or grinded to get up and this is move it from play chillies garlic there's gonna be some ginger that goes in there a little bit of tomato yeah I can already I can already sense it coming together I love seeing the different methods the different mortar and pestle around the world but so many cultures have a version of mashing spices to create a paste for for soups and curries as is another Ghana has another beautiful version and then they tossed in a couple tomatoes which are gonna boil down but yeah yeah that's all coming together actually the grass cutter has a very unique definitely a bush meat aroma to it as we're making the ground our soup and then the progressive but I like soup we need the Wrightsville to agree and it's called mo mo mo - oh yes I'm a cool the tomatoes that's where boiling coming to Granite's and added today this test class Catala soup is ready it's ready okay next mama is getting prepared starting on the ground nuts soup and so first she boiled they're actually called garden eggs I think it it looks like a type of eggplant but they called garden eggs tomatoes and chili she boiled them and then they're gonna blend all that up to make a sauce oh well soup that's ground nut paste which is like it's like peanut butter how cheese mixing up in there's a little bit of grass cutter in the yes a ground that superior whenever you travel there's just nothing better than home cooked food a home-cooked meal prepared by a family they've worked together to prepare dinner things are coming together or getting ready to eat pretty soon she just added in the groundnut immediately you can smell that nutty aroma then she added in the fried fish that's gonna cook down and that's gonna be the ground nut soup final step before we eat she's making the rice balls them and so she cooks the rice so it's kind of like kind of those a little bit sticky and kind of wet but then she actually kind of mashes it with the spoon to make it more of a sticky kind of pasty consistency these three guys that were here taking a nap on the they can't stay out of this end pile yeah that's really incredible how she does that she forms it into a perfect like almost like a softball shape but first mashing the rice with the paddle then into a ball and just kind of like shaking it until it's smooth on the outsides in a perfect ball shape I'm just stepping back in the kitchen I wish you could smell the aroma of that peanut just it's just filling the air it's incredible finally our DNA is ready and the family is gonna join in eating ready the host mom and Papa together it's a different family it's very trying to eat this we're all sitting down to eat now we beginning with the ground nut soup this is the dish I've been excited to try in Ghana and there there's nothing better than a home-cooked version of it I got both a piece of fish and a piece of the grass cutter in here and I think oh I think I got the drumstick I think I got the leg first I'll just start with the the rice ball and dip it into this oh yeah that's sticky real sticky texture oh yeah that's hot and it's thick from the peanuts oh it's really good oh you taste the real nutty ground nut flavor you taste the chilies in there a little bit of a tomatoey flavor as well it's thick it's rich I like how it's not this version is not oily at all there's no oil in there it's just relying on that like Hardy peanut flavor mm-hmm that's wonderful okay moving on to the fish I'll mix in with some of that rice as well oh that fish is awesome but yeah the fish has been deep-fried so it has that kind of like skin deep fried in the skin on it but then rehydrated in the ground nut soup it's time to try the grass cutter my first time ever and this is they're just the first there's just a little bit of grass cutter in here most of the grass cutter he's in that separate soup is this the hind leg the hind leg the drumstick and you eat it all with the skin all right it feels quite tender oh that's that's extremely tender mm-hmm actually it's it's very similar to chicken but with like a sweeter almost like cardamom the kind of taste to it and yeah by the way this is a it's called a greater cane rat you Manuel yeah how's that how's that food over there hey hey the grass critter is amazing it's like [Music] I'm like amazed how tender it is and flavorful [Music] John that soup was incredible and now we're all gonna move on to second course which is the the grass cutter sewer yeah and so we I think this time I had I had a leg before I had the drumstick now I think I have a piece of the back oh do you take us it's so good and what what's amazing to me is it's so soft and tender yeah like right me so tender you have white meat white meat but it does have a little bit of like a a sweet a real sweet please go yeah I'm really sweet me and maybe because it's so fresh as well yeah yeah and then that's soup that it's that you boiled it in there's you can taste the chilies in there the tomatoes the onions the ginger and what is this this is the liver yeah okay and I just got a piece of the liver here first time grass cutter liver Wow you got that it's a kind of like almost has like a like a grassy kind of taste to it it is a that's right it's called the grass cutter right yeah till they run you that's all you got that is made of grass [Music] I didn't know what to expect I thought it would be more like a like a rat but really it tasted like chicken so fall apart tender yeah extraordinary I can see why it is a delicacy in Ghana what a meal thank you very much thank you very much hey then yeah thank you so much that was great yes nice house I'd loved it wow thank you we're staying in Cape Coast so we just drove back from Amina you can hear the waves of the Atlantic crashing behind me but just reflecting on today it's been an absolutely sensational incredible experience of a day today having the chance to hang out - okay buying the grass cutter and eating the grass cutter that was that was a highlight for me is that something I've never done but then also I mean going to the illumina fish market just going through the market and and just the raw culture the action the energy the colors the smells and then cooking the food at home I want to say a huge thank you to our entire host family and I was on this tour today with can-do land they set everything up so thank you to can do land tours they are doing great things in Ghana I'll have some information in the description box below and thank you very much for watching this video please remember to give it a thumbs up leave a comment below I'd love to hear from you in the comments and yeah if you're not already 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Channel: Mark Wiens

Views: 9,071,695

Rating: 4.5618482 out of 5

Keywords: bushmeat, Africa, African food, food, street food, Elmina, Ghana, Ghanaian food, west african food, African best food, grasscuttter, eating bushmeat, wild meat, unique food, unseen food, food travel, Mark Wiens, food tv, best African food

Id: pBPXxO9E-fQ

Length: 21min 37sec (1297 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 20 2018