Boule
The staple Chadian food is known as “boule” (pronounced bool). It is a sort of mush made of ground grain and water, a little like mashed potatoes but with a stiffer consistency rather like playdough. Many other African countries eat it too, though it comes under different names depending on the local languages. In Chad, it can be made from any of a variety of grains, such as manioc, millet, corn, or rice.
Whatever grain it comes from, boule is pretty bland stuff by itself, so it is always served with some kind of side dish with sauce, made of meat and/or vegetables. My personal favorite is rather like beef stew. Another popular one is fish with a tomato-based sauce. One of the most popular is “gumbo” sauce, made from a green plant. My least favorite is called long sauce, a cold, grayish, stringy mixture of fish or meat and sauce. However, most of the dishes served with boule are pretty good.
The traditional way to eat boule is from a communal dish. You break off a chunk with your fingers, dip it in the sauce, and eat it. Does that sound strange to you – different from the way you eat food at your home? Don’t worry, everyone washes their hands carefully beforehand! By the time you are done though, you will want to wash your hands again. Here in Chad, there are many places without running water, but that is not a problem for hand-washing. Someone will bring you soap and a basin, and will pour water over your hands so you can wash them.
Meat
Meat can also be served without boule. The most common meats in southern Chad are beef, goat, chicken, and fish. Others are mutton and guinea fowl (a poultry bird that looks a bit like an ugly chicken but tastes quite different).
We don’t eat pork or ham, although some people do raise pigs. You see, here in Chad, there is often no refridgeration available, and no meat processing factories, and pig meat is particularly susceptible to certain serious diseases if it is not very carefully handled. So we play it safe and avoid it. I have found this particular detail about Chadian life very interesting. I’d always wondered why the Old Testament Law forbade the Israelites from eating pigs. Probably one reason was simply for good health, since there weren’t fridges or factories back then either!
Other Dishes
Although boule is the most popular food in Chad, it is not the only food eaten here. Rice is also common. So is couscous, which is a kind of grain that is popular in Africa but not as popular in America. Pasta is also readily available, though it is usually reserved for special occasions.
Potatoes are available in Chad but are quite expensive. They are almost a delicacy, actually.
Fruits and Snacks
Fruits are available in Chad when they are in season. Mangoes get ripe at the end of dry season, and there are few things as delicious as a fresh, ripe mango! Bananas are common; the ones we get here are small, barely half the size of the bananas you will usually get in America, but very sweet and good.
Peanuts are popular and are grown right here in Chad and are popular snacks. They will be nicely roasted, and sometimes they will be sugared to make a sweet snack. Before I moved here, I thought I didn’t like peanuts, but I’ve discovered that I really do like Chadian peanuts! They have a richer flavor here, perhaps because they are fresher since they are not imported. Thankfully, since peanuts are popular, peanut butter isn’t hard to come by, though it is different from the factory-made stuff you usually buy in the States. It is home-made, natural peanut butter with no sugar added. We like it. J
Bouille (pronounced bwee) is something between a drink and a food. It is made with white peanut butter (i.e. made from raw peanuts) and rice and sugar … and I forget what other ingredients. It’s usually pretty tasty. Anyway, it is sort of like a rather thin porridge, just thin enough to drink. It is served hot, usually in bowls or large mugs.
Drinks
Hot tea is by far the most popular drink. It isn’t much different from American tea, except that Chadians tend to make theirs stronger and much sweeter than most Americans prefer. Often it is served in small glasses rather than mugs, which works fine except that the hot tea makes the glass hot to hold. My veteran coworkers are used to it, but I’m still training my fingers to tolerate holding hot glass!
Sometimes instead of hot tea, hot milk with sugar might be offered. With the shortage of refridgeration in Chad, fresh milk is not practical, so we use powdered milk. However, it is fortified whole milk and is pretty good stuff.
Soft drinks (soda or pop or whatever you want to call it) are popular. Coke is the top favorite, followed by Fanta and some other fruit-flavored sodas, with Sprite a distant third.
Water is of course essential, especially in this hot climate, and it is good Chadian manners to serve water to any guest that comes by. However, clean drinking water is often not available here, and unpleasant and even serious diseases can lurk in unfiltered water, so my coworkers and I carry our own bottles around wherever we go. Anyway, our friends don’t want us to get sick, so if they do offer us water, it is purchased bottled water that is perfectly safe.
What we eat at home
By now, some people may wonder what I eat at home. We are able to get or make quite a few of our favorite food items or dishes that would be familiar to my American and Australian readers, such as hamburgers, fries, and pizza, though all of those must be made from scratch. We have salad every day if we can, though all the vegetables must be put through a more stringent cleansing process to make it safe to eat. Sometimes we have chicken, but not too often since it is a lot of trouble to make it. You see, in Chad, if you want to buy chicken, you will get a live, clucking, fully feathered bird!
What we don’t eat
In closing, I guess I will also mention some of the things we can’t get here. I don’t like to dwell on that too much because it isn’t worth complaining or worrying about, but perhaps some of you would be interested to know. I’ll just make a list of some things that come to mind. Some of these things can’t be found here in Sarh but can be found in the capital city or the large town of Moundou, some hours’ drive away. Other things can’t be found anywhere in Chad that we know of. Here they are:
- Chocolate bars
- Ice cream
- Breakfast cereal, except for Corn Flakes
- Pre-prepared foods such as frozen vegetables and microwave dinners
- Cheese (except for a kind of canned cheese which is useful for making mac’n’cheese)
- Butter
- Sliced bread (we can get bread but only in long, thin loaves shaped a bit like French bread)
- Yogurt
- Potato chips, except for Pringles
- Turkey
Welcome to Africa. You're doin great!
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