TRASACCO APARTMENT & FOOD FAILS

Sharing an apartment with Narkwor and Juliet was fun. When you share an apartment with friends you can bug them to cook something you're craving, pinch what they've just cooked or laugh the life out of them in crazy situations. It happened a lot, all the time.
Like the time I got home from work after a straight day, Narkwor should have come with me but she had to work longer as usual to make sure everything was in place. I left the office an hour after my shift ended, that should give you an idea how long Narkwor worked after her official closing time. Her shift ended two hours before mine. It was always like that for her.

Anyway I had a late lunch and I needed a dessert to satisfy my sweet tooth. There was nothing. I opened the tin of Milo and there it was, as inviting as freshly made chocolate. The Milo had solidified. I took a bite and couldn't resist so I helped my self.

Then I thought to send her a message - I had eaten her "chocomilo". Her response left me frozen in spot for a while. She had actually been saving it for a time when she'd savour it. I had just consumed the entire thing. I spent the next 2 days dodging her @ the apartment and @ work. 😂😂

I needed to go to the newsroom where she was and I chose to slip in unnoticed. She did notice me and mentioned my name when I thought I was in the clear to exit. We laughed about it.

Juliet loves to come home to sweet aroma from the kitchen but I didn't always cooperate in that regard. I am a librocubicularist. That annoys her.

I can still hear her scream ringing in my ears, "you spent a whole day at home and you didn't cook and you're reading in bed"😂😂.

It's imprinted in my memory, I don't know what can get it out. You should hear her hustling Narkwor to prepare kenkey for the weekend. Smh

Actually the book I was reading that day belongs to her, I "borrowed" it while she was at work.

I once lent a book I borrowed from Nii Smart to Shaban. It was in my possession so technically I could lend it. 

Shaban had said a few days earlier that he wasn't a fan of the author. He couldn't put the book down when he started reading.

In fact, I walked in on him reading on his prayer mat during lunchtime. That isn't the interesting bit. Days later Narkwor went to the bank, banks in Congo are notorious for their poor customer service which leads to long queues, Shaban was standing in one of those reading the book I lent him. Narkwor didn't let him be. That story cracks me up all the time. Never say you don't like something when you've not even tried it. Lesson learned.

I think I should tell you about Juliet's food adventures. We all have cravings for meals that remind us of home. That's why there are thriving businesses the world over selling, transporting a taste of home to expats. Sometimes it isn't possible to get what you want. Juliet wanted palm nut soup - gh style. She saw palm nuts in the market and thought "how difficult can it be?"

The answer to that depends on how you look at it. She bought the nuts. A few days later I was to meet her at the market after I knocked off. I showed up to a scene of Juliet standing next to a mortar and pestle. She wasn't about to give up on that craving!

To cut a long story short she boiled the nuts and proceeded to pound them, it must have been a Saturday. It was a tiresome process, I don't ever remember pounding palm nuts to be so difficult. Perhaps that should have given a hint of what was to come. In fact, an elderly neighbour looked up from his compound and commented " c'est dur uh?"

Ça va faire tres bizarre!

So work on the soup proper started. Spiced protein(s) of choice, garden eggs, okro etc then the pounded nuts. You should know cleaning up after preparing palm nut soup is another headache. After about 30 minutes I went to the kitchen to grab some water and spy on the soup. I stood for a while and said to myself it will come out well eventually. It didn't. 15 minutes went by and the content of the pot looked rather "sleepy" and thick. More water should do the trick. It didn't help. Narkwor joined us in the kitchen and exclaimed "what is this?" There was not a hint of oil on the soup and that is quite queer! And it still looked weird. We tasted it, had to mehn. Let's just say the soup didn't stay on.

Another time we run out of corn dough. She badly wanted to eat banku. So again after a day at work she headed off to the market, got some maize and soaked it in water for 2 days. She enlisted the help of a Congolese colleague to find a corn mill. They got the milled corn to the apartment and my sister was delighted.😀😁

I got home to her prepping the meal, only it never cooked. How? I don't know. Over an hour and it was sloppy in the saucepan - somewhere between porridge and a thick mess. She wasn't going to waste food. She dished it and tried to enjoy it. Julie, how was it?

Knee (not a spelling mistake), was always up for some food adventure. What do you expect? Dude isn't great @ cooking but he tries. The name, Knee, that's how our then head of office pronounced Nii, we took to it and it stuck. We still call him that. He called me Hama, please don't ask me to explain.

Knee came over to the apartment quite often and we had a grand old time cooking and putting him to work. He washed dishes, ground pepper, poor Knee. One time I didn't realize the tilapia I bought from the market had not been scaled, the innards had been cleaned out though. I put together some spice rub and fried it with love 😜. Narkwor prepared some banku, Knee must have been on pepper grinding duty. It was a beautiful sight. Only for the first taste of fish to be filled with scales! All the goodness of the spice rub was on there. I couldn't believe it.🙈

As for food-fails, there were a number of them. Not so much because of a lack of cooking knowledge as it was a case of forgetfulness. What television can do.

I once burnt a whole pan of shito, it tasted like charcoal grit in oil. Oh, I tried to salvage it but a decorated donkey is still an ass.

On two occasions Narkwor set out to make some quiche. It started as quiche, went into the oven as quiche but came out as something else. Both times she had been engrossed in what she was watching on tv. Television is definitely not a friend when it comes to monitoring food while cooking.

Sometimes we were too tired to cook or just didn't feel like it. Thing is in PNR you have to know what to expect from a restaurant/food joint before you order. It is not a rule. It's just to keep you from wasting money, time and taste buds.

Knee took to ordering pizza and coke, I don't know how that counts as food but he did quite often. 

I tend to experiment with recipes quite a bit but when I don't want to cook, I don't want to cook. Actually, I visited the market only about once a month, in the rainy season make that once in 2 months. We bought in bulk, we had to for we didn't know when next we were to find the ingredients we preferred in the market. Supply is erratic in Pointe Noire - something to do with transportation from the farm gate.

And you have to "stall shop" to get good produce at good prices. Don't think of keeping to one seller, he/she might be selling something else the next day. Most traders sell what is readily available, tomatoes today, onions tomorrow. Anytime it rains you can expect to wade through mud in the main foodstuff market - marché OCH. Not knee level, ankle level but it still isn't something I'd willingly do. That's when I rarely visited the market. I just looked @ what ingredients I had and which I could borrow from Narkwor or Juliet to prepare something. Or sometimes I'd pass by marché Mpita to pick up a few things as it's a very small market and you could just buy what you needed right on the pavement.

Sometime in 2017, we discovered an Attieke & tilapia joint close to the apartment. It belonged to an Ivorian lady. She sold other foods but the grilled tilapia and Attieke was our choice. It was a welcome treat. We patronized it a few times and then I didn't see the owner there anymore. Her staff told someone to my hearing that she'd gone to visit Ivory Coast. No big deal. The staff continued selling. Only for about a week more.
One Tuesday, for whatever reason, I went to work without lunch. I didn't get anything I wanted @ lunchtime so I skipped it with the plan to just indulge in some Attieke and tilapia after I knocked off. I knocked off @ 5pm and checked to see if the lady was there on my way home. She wasn't but it was not an issue as she usually set up after 6pm. I went home and got back @ 7pm. It was a horror movie. She hadn't shown up neither had her staff. I was hungry and had no cooked food @ home. I walked back dejected and had some tea. 

That lady never came back till I left Congo, only God knows what happened to her.

If you want good food in PNR, Andy is the go to guy but I know a few. La voile blanche has great steak(and cool ambience). Food factory is the place for sandwiches. Le Prince is the place for lunch buffet and Andy's famous Gaspard has nice African dishes.