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What’s in my stomach??

By lrich522

This is a blog post about food in Dakar, Senegal.

Monday:

  • Breakfast: chocopain (chocolate spread) and bread with kinkileba tea
  • Lunch: Sandwich omelette frites at CIEE study center – This is literally just eggs and fries with ketchup and mayo in a massive sandwich and I LOVE it (500 CFA = 82 cents)
  • Dinner: Doorat which is an entire grilled fish with fries, mayo, and yassa (an onion sauce)

 

Tuesday:

  • Breakfast: bread and chocolate
  • Lunch: Ceebujën (this means rice and fish in Wolof)
  • Snack: biscrème cookies (100CFA at all of the nearby boutiques = 16 cents)
  • Dinner: ndambe which is pretty much just a massive plate of beans with more bread

 

Wednesday:

  • Breakfast: surprise surprise more bread, chocolate, and tea (I don’t hate it tho)
  • Lunch: yassa poisson which is a fish with the yassa onion sauce, and white rice. This was the plat du jour at CIEE (1000 CFA = $1.63)
  • Dinner: Spaghetti with an onion and meat sauce

Thursday:

  • Breakfast: pancakes! jk it was bread and chocolate
  • Lunch: CIEE plat victoria which is eggs, salad, and beans = 1000CFA = $1.63
  • Snack: freshly fried beignets (I love them and they love me) = 25 CFA/beignet = 4 cents / beignet
  • Dinner: My friends and I went out to eat at a particularly pricey seafood restaurant. I ate beignet crevette

 

Friday:

  • Breakfast: you already know it’s bread and chocolate
  • Lunch: ceebujën bu xong = red rice and fish (the national dish and also my favorite) It usually includes a few vegetables like carrots, cabbage, and turnips.
  • Snack: arachides sucrées - peanuts coated in sugar
  • Dinner: jën buñu laak which is grilled fish and lettuce

 

Saturday:

  • Breakfast: Don’t make me type it again
  • Lunch: Doomo daa which was white rice covered with a tomatoey sauce. Absolutely delicious.
  • Dinner: Ginaar buñu laak = Chicken and lettuce

 

Sunday:

  • Breakfast: …
  • Lunch: ceebuyapp which means rice and meat
  • Dinner: laax lotorit which is millet and a peanut butter sauce

 

Each Sunday, Senegalese families eat a similar meal for dinner involving millet and either yogurt or peanut butter. The peanut butter sauce is very different from American peanut butter and each time I have had it with this meal it's been much thinner and sweeter. When I first ate this, I really did not like it at all and tried to disguise my distaste to be polite. The next time I had it, I liked it a little more. And now it’s one of my favorite Senegalese meals..

Overall, I have loved every single thing I’ve eaten here. The only challenge is trying to control myself when it comes to cheap street food and supplementing the carb heavy diet with fruits and vegetables.