More groceries (Wednesday, 2011 February 2)
I’ve been meaning to upload these for a while, but never quite got to it.
Here is a picture of a fruit they call fromage, "cheese". It has a mushy but somewhat firm texture, so the name isn’t completely misleading. It has a sweet, delicate taste, a little bit like cream cheese frosting. I have no idea what season it grows in — I have seen it rarely at the village market and buy it when I can. The flesh yields when you pinch it, so you can sort of crumble it into pieces. You try to eat the flesh without eating the skin (but I think you can eat the skin if you are so inclined). Inside there are seeds which are hard, brown, and smooth, seemingly polished glossy. The fruit itself is small, and after eating a few you get a film on your teeth. (At least I do.) Parfait says I have to garde him some, because it’s "bien jusqu’Ã ". ("Good up to here!")
Aubergines, eggplants. My postmate Cristina tells me that the purple ones are "Japanese eggplants", and I think somebody told me a name for the red ones which I have forgotten. Like les cerises, cherries, the name was applied to two or three different things and it is difficult to use the word precisely. At the stand where I bought the purple ones, I had to explain for a few minutes that I was also looking for "the other quality" of aubergines, the ones that seem like tomatoes. Even the grocer didn’t really know what I was talking about.
Concombre and courgette, cucumber and zucchini. I bought these, as well as the purple eggplant, on a shopping spree in Bafoussam — I just plongéd into Marché A and decided to keep walking and take turns at random until I found something I longed for. Marché A is terribly fascinating, and I intend to repeat the experience. 100 CFA/200 CFA apiece, respectively.
"PINK Orange Flavored Drink" tastes neither like orange nor like pink and frankly it wasn’t worth the 1200 CFA I paid for it. On the other hand, I get to keep the 2L bottle.
Avocats, which need no explanation. Avocats are nombreux in dry season. Prices seem to be at random, but seem to go up with size. This collection here is probably about 600 CFA worth. Watch out for the squished one.
Miel, or honey. I bought this 1.5L bottle for 5000 CFA or something. It’s a little sour and a little sweet. There are a few different manufacturers of honey around these parts, and each talks about quality, but it’s hard to figure out which is actually good. Apparently one way to discover good honey is to put some on paper. If it leaks through to the other side, it’s not good honey.