daily photo niger

something special on the menu

Maquis 2000 is my new favorite restaurant. On the menu, from the top down, braised fish, capitaine (river perch from the Niger) with lemon, ginger, garlic or just fried. Chicken braised with lemon, garlic or peppers. Pintade (guinea fowl) with peppers or braised. I don't know what Kedjenou is, but you can have it with chicken, guinea fowl or river rat. Aren't you excited?

They bring your drinks, then they wait until you tell them you want to order. We thought we were waiting for our food, then we remembered we hadn't ordered! We went at 7:00 and we were done by 10:00 which really was pretty good. Kids were asleep with their heads on the table by the time we left. They had "super brochettes" huge, beautiful beef brochettes. I had capitaine gingembre with allaco--fried plantains. It was amazing.

beignets cooking on my street

from the garden

coconut man

If you wait long enough, someone will come by with whatever you need: shoe shine, matches, ice cream cones, sewing repairs, tea or coffee made while you wait and snacks. Snacks are carried on a tray on someone's head, and they often carry a little table in their hand to set the tray on when you stop them. This way you can pick up a banana, a carrot, sugar cane is popular, soloni, (yogurt drink in a bag, kids love it), a small bag of nuts, many items I can't figure out, for example, what is the gum arabic for? But here is the coconut guy, stopped in front of our house.

chateau un

I buy 95 percent of my fresh fruit and vegetables here. This is as good as it gets, right now, during the cool season, more is available than any other time of year. The inventory: eggplant, cucumbers, cauliflower, cabbage, lettuce, okra, small green peppers, carrots, birdcages, musical instruments, honey, dried corn, beets, parsnips, green onion, zucchini, parsley, basil, peanuts in a bottle, coriander, onions, potatoes, tomatoes, oranges, eggs, papaya, pineapple, bananas, melon, watermelon, in the cardboard boxes, limes. And this week, as if cauliflower wasn't enough, a reason to celebrate: strawberries.