One of the most exciting things when traveling oversea is to try “Local foods.” Yes, we have thoroughly enjoyed this part of our trip. (Maybe a bit too excessively….)

We had quite a feast almost every night, including Chicken, Jumbo Escargot, Quail, African fried rice, Yam, Casava couscous–Atieke, lamb, Fish, delicious tropical fruits, and etc… When we were at our residence, an Ivorian woman cooked for us. Main dishes are mostly stew style, and they are served with rice, Atieke, and Yam. All the dishes were cooked from scratch, and tasted so great. Surprisingly, those dishes were quite resembled to Japanese home cooking. (of course, I was able to enjoy rice everyday!!)

Wherever we visited Ivorian family, they always served some kinds of foods. I typically found it quite exhausting to keep meeting with new people in another culture, especially I could not communicate with their language. However, having a meal together (with a little bit of alcohol)  almost made me forget about the fact that we were not able to communicate each other verbally. All we needed was a smile after tasting the same foods. Although we were not verbally communicating to each other, I felt that we have gotten to know each other quite well after the meals.

I cannot think of any better icebreaker than sharing foods, when meeting with people in unfamiliar place and culture.

Through this trip, I confirmed my believe which is “sharing meals is such an effective tool to develop a sense of community.”

I am already missing African foods….