A Taste of Guinea: Fried Plantains

In Guinea, most people have less freedom compared with many other countries in the world because of Guinea's oppressive government. Even though their government doesn't control everything, they make sure their people know who can take away certain necessities like food or shelter if they rebel. This leaves their culture very undeveloped, although they do some favorites past times such as music and football. Guinea is also one of the few countries to make hand crafts such as leather, jewelery, wood carvings, etc very ethnically genuine. Many don't get to see the creative and innovative side of Guineans because the majority of visitors are businessmen. In Guinea, an oppressive government not only effects their culture, but the food supply. Most families only can afford to eat one meal a day, unless they have a high paying job, which is hard to achieve because their education is one of the lowest in the world. The government has been raising food prices so high that there has been violent protests over bread, rice, vegetables, etc. Some organizations such as World Food Programme have donated food to over 50,000 people, but there are still lots of starving Guineans. Many people have to survive on what they can find to make meals for their families or sell snacks on the streets. One popular and tasty snack is fried plantains (bananas) that are usually sold for a penny, which may not seem like a lot, but can buy a week's worth of food. Here's a simple recipe to make fried plantains:

Ingredients

3-4 large bananas
2-3 cups of vegetable oil
pinch of salt

Heat oil until very hot in a fry pan or electric fryer. Put a little salt on plantains and fry until done. The thin lengthwise-sliced plantains will be a deep yellow and should be crisp. The thicker rounds will be brownish and crisp on the outside. The inside of the rounds should not be crisp. Add onion or other seasonings to give bananas a more savory flavor.

Tomorrow will be about a nearby African country: Liberia




sources: http://www.everyculture.com/Ge-It/Guinea.html, http://www.friendsofguinea.org/recipes.shtml#maffi%20hakko, http://www.lexisnexis.com/us/lnacademic/results/docview/docview.do?docLinkInd=true&risb=21_T6003125002&format=GNBFI&sort=RELEVANCE&startDocNo=1&resultsUrlKey=29_T6003125008&cisb=22_T6003125007&treeMax=true&treeWidth=0&csi=10962&docNo=1