Liberia is known for its amazing food. The hearty and spicy food here is heavily influenced by the many immigrants that reside here. Over the years, this tiny coastal country is home to many cultures and people of different countries.
West African cooking is very strongly felt in the food here. The best of West African flavors have been incorporated into this cuisine. Later on, Liberia was colonized by the American blacks who were freed in the early nineteenth century.
Because of the creole cooking is now with a West African sweet flavoring. The Italians used the squsito. Stews are quite famous here. The stews here are made of different meats, fish, chicken, pork, and shellfish. This is served with rice and fufu. Fufu is a fermented form of cassava made into dumplings that have drinks in the flavors of the stew.
Liberians make the vegetable the center of the meal and the vegetables here come first.
The vegetables here are the diverse range of them, are what is mainly responsible for differentiating the dishes. The Liberian cooks are very skillful in cooking up amazing flavors. An average Liberian would not just say that he had chicken and bitter leaf. Although he would say that he has had beef and pork and chicken and seafood and then he will tell you about the bitter leaf with enthusiasm.
If you check the RLJ Kendeja hotel, you could find yourself sitting down around the many coffee tables with bowls of food placed on your laps. The famous selling dish here is the bitter leaf dipped in fufu. Scotch bonnet peppers would get you all teary with the delight able spicy flavor it has.
Try out Evelyn’s restaurant and bar which is located on Broad Street in the Monrovia downtown area. This place is the capital of this place. Although you might find yourself in a traffic jam, you could have young children coming towards the cars and sell everything from hand towels to boiled eggs. There are people dressed up I the streets in colorful laps and sarongs.
The Evelyn’s restaurant has a large menu with good sandwiches, salads and of course the local special shawarmas. . The specials here might get you something like palm butter and palava sauce.
The national dish of this place is palm butter. Palm nuts are used to make palm butter. The nuts are pounded into the mash and then it is cooked thoroughly. This gives out a nice thick and buttery sauce. This butter is incorporated into dishes like crawfish, dried fish, chicken, beef, pig, and the suck snail. This snail suck is mainly put in the stews here.
There are stews made of the famous Pallava sauces. This stew is made out of jute leaves and the texture is somewhat like okra.
Check back in this space shortly for the continuation of the journey through Liberia’s most delight able places.
