Gemin - Mouth

Today for lunch, we ate Tiébou Dienn. traditionally, meals are eaten from one large bowl shared by anyway from as little as three people to up to around eighteen. i ate with six others. they brought the food out and peering over into the bowl, i saw a thick base of oily brown rice, a large piece of blackened fish, an eggplant, carrot, bitter tomato, hot pepper (which they called the Saddam Hussein pepper), lime and casava. the catch is all of this is served whole. and there are no utensils so you have to use your hands. and at that, you can only use your right hand. this was all told to us before hand (no pun intended) and honestly made me a little uncomfortable at the time. but once we had begun eating, it was incredible.

it's the complete opposite of ettiquette in the US though there definitely is a very rigid method involved. first, you scoop up a handful of rice, squeezing it and rolling it around in your hand until it's a ball. then if you want, break off a piece of something else in the bowl and eat it all in one bite. no napkins, no water. who says you can't play with your food?

the meal was incredible and afterwards i had the best juices i've had in my life. all freshly squeezed and iced. there were maybe 9 different kinds, my favorite of which were the guava, bissap and the baobab (yes, juice from the tree). it was the senegalese equivalent of a fine wine tasting as we sampled each juice, being surprised by flavors we had never known existed.

the girls wore serong type things to keep their clothes from being dirtied whereas we guys just had brown rice all over us. after it was done and we had thanked our hosts, everyone left with an oily orange-tinted stain around their mouths, a right hand that smelled like fish, and showing a little bit of a smile in that we were finally here.