Gabon

I actually made food from Gabon two days ago, but I didn't have any time to sit down and write this up until now. It's not a long one, since the dish that I made is very simple. But, as Julia Child once said: "You don't have to cook fancy or complicated masterpieces--just good food from fresh ingredients."

There's not much to say here about Gabonese cuisine; being a former French colony (only gaining their independence in 1960) there's a prevalence of French food, like beignets, but also Western African influences in the form of staple foods like cassava and yams. One dish that stuck out to me that was vegetarian and seemed easy to make was baked bananas. The name of this dish is a little misleading, as the bananas only bake for 5 minutes after they've been fried in oil.

The recipe is simple: cut the bananas into diagonal pieces, coat them in egg, roll them in breadcrumbs, then fry them in oil.

I was reminded why I don't fry things very often (apart from it not being the healthiest thing). It smelled great for a while, like fried dough at the fair. But after leaving for a few hours and coming back, everything just smelled like stale fried food. Luckily though, it was the nicest day we'd had in a couple weeks, and we were able to open up all of the windows.

After the bananas are done frying, they go on a baking sheet and in a very hot oven for a few minutes. They look a little like fish sticks when you're done.

I think the baking dries out a little of the oil and makes them a bit easier to eat so they're not just soggy and greasy.

They're traditionally eaten with sour cream lightly sweetened with brown sugar, which is what I did. The aforementioned nice weather was perfect for spending the evening with friends at a vineyard, so after they were done I packed them up and brought them along for a picnic.

Not the fanciest place setting in the world, but these bananas are really great picnic food, perfect for eating outside on a nice day on a blanket in the grass. I even ate more of them for breakfast the next morning. It's fruit, so it's healthy, right?

Recipes Used: Baked Bananas