Bananas

When one goes to a local bar here and asks what is on the menu the inevitable response is "banana" (plantain to you and me in the developed world or less frequently the root vegetable "matabala" cocoyam).

Now a plate of boiled plantains (or cocoyam) does not sound all that appetising - I ate them for years until I realised I didn't much like them and they had started growing delicious new potatoes (above an altitude of c. 900 metres) as well as the inevitable rice, spaghetti, macaroni etc.

So I innocently ask "With what?". An incredulous response "With fish of course" (stupid white man is obviously running through their head).

"What kind of fish?" I ask - come on there is a big difference between a steak of sailfish or tuna and a tiny flying-fish or gar-fish. The former succulent and "meaty", the latter full of tiny bones.

I understand some of the reasons ...

a) In colonial times, if you lived on the coast and were poor, then the only fresh fish you could afford were the small bony ones, so you filled up your stomach with plantain.

b) In colonial times, if you lived inland and were poor with no motorised transport, then the only fish you could afford were the small bony ones dried and salted, so you filled up your stomach with plantain.

c) If you are poor, then or now, and you have 3, 4, 5+ kids to feed, they get plantain or cocoyam to fill their stomachs.