Riaan Manser recalls all the odd foods he has had to eat while travelling dirt roads, and shares pearls of wisdom for those unexpected gastronomic moments.
Fresh off of last week’s trip on the MSC Opera, Riaan Manser recalls all the odd foods he has had to eat while travelling dirt roads, and shares pearls of wisdom for those unexpected gastronomic moments.
For many outdoor enthusiasts and intrepid travellers, the biggest surprise is the food. The rest is what you knowingly sign up for: the views, the people, the culture – even the chaos. You embrace it all, yet hesitate at the thought of horse fillet mignon or crocodile goulash landing on your plate.
Make no mistake, I’ve been caught off guard more than once, staring down a culinary curiosity and wondering: am I really going to eat this?
It’s as if I had naively assumed that people in different countries and cultures would eat exactly what I do back home.
On my world-first bicycle circumnavigation of Africa twenty years ago, I quickly learned otherwise: people eat what they can find – and it’s not always a matter of choice.
I remember, in the jungles of northern Angola, coming across a young boy on the side of a rugged jeep track. In his hands was a light blue enamel plate piled high with blush-toned mangoes. I stopped and asked, “How much? Quanto costa?”
I’ve long forgotten the number he replied with – it didn’t matter. I was already primed with my standard response: “Too expensive! Muito caro!”
He halved his price and I bought them all. Gleefully proud of my negotiation skills, I started putting the mangoes away in my front storage box. The boy had already moved on, no more than 10 metres ahead, into the shade of a large tree. There, he scanned the ground, casually picking up fresh fruit to refill his plate – ready, it seemed, for the next customer.
I had just been taken! Or had I simply been outplayed? You could just as easily argue he was being smart – setting up shop exactly where it made the most sense.
My point, though, is this: People will always use resources that are convenient to harvest. So it makes sense that they eat whatever is nearby. It may not be to your palate, but it is what they eat.
Riaan Manser recalls all the odd foods he has had to eat while travelling dirt roads, and shares pearls of wisdom for those unexpected gastronomic moments.
Riaan Manser recalls all the odd foods he has had to eat while travelling dirt roads, and shares pearls of wisdom for those unexpected gastronomic moments.
Riaan Manser recalls all the odd foods he has had to eat while travelling dirt roads, and shares pearls of wisdom for those unexpected gastronomic moments.
Riaan Manser recalls all the odd foods he has had to eat while travelling dirt roads, and shares pearls of wisdom for those unexpected gastronomic moments.
Riaan Manser recalls all the odd foods he has had to eat while travelling dirt roads, and shares pearls of wisdom for those unexpected gastronomic moments.
Riaan Manser recalls all the odd foods he has had to eat while travelling dirt roads, and shares pearls of wisdom for those unexpected gastronomic moments.
Riaan Manser recalls all the odd foods he has had to eat while travelling dirt roads, and shares pearls of wisdom for those unexpected gastronomic moments.
Riaan Manser recalls all the odd foods he has had to eat while travelling dirt roads, and shares pearls of wisdom for those unexpected gastronomic moments.
Riaan Manser recalls all the odd foods he has had to eat while travelling dirt roads, and shares pearls of wisdom for those unexpected gastronomic moments.
On this same bicycle trip, I would start my days in Guinea Bissau early – before the sun had risen – making my way slowly through thick, rising mist and slippery clay under-wheel. The regular sounds of gunfire would echo. Shotguns, specifically. Ten minutes later, I would encounter the old men alongside the track. Shotgun open and slung over one shoulder, and on the other shoulder, a monkey or two. The victims, of course, of the men’s hunt. The monkeys’ tails curled backwards and were threaded through their own scalps, forming comfortable slings with which to drape the creatures over their shoulders. Odd, isn’t it?
But then, hours later, I was sitting in a hut eating a plate of “ris et sauce”. White, fluffy rice topped with a few blobs of sauce and monkey meat. Why, oh why would I eat this? Because I was in Rome and, as the saying goes…
In Ivory Coast I haggled so well for the week I spent in Abidjan that I earned a certain moniker. “The rat man!” the stall owners would shout when they saw me approaching.
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They all knew I was coming for my daily tea and grilled rat sandwich. Two things influenced my choice here: of course, accessibility. But, more profoundly, my lack of money – I could only afford one small rat per day. The chilli sauce they put on my bread roll was free.
In both Accra and Abidjan, I helped people harvest native fruit bats out of trees. Not just because I wanted to help and bond with some locals, but more so because of my belief that no one could use a kettie (slingshot) better than a South African – full stop. The bat, by the way, was delicious, if grilled to a crisp on an open fire. Chilli sauce optional.
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Next time you’re in a foreign environment – it doesn’t even have to be another country, it could even be a stretch along Voortrekker Road you’d never considered stopping in –
try something new. Be brave. Even if it means pinching your nose while you tilt your head backwards to drop the oddity down your throat.
The outdoors is calling your belly! Time to listen…
*Riaan Manser is a pioneering international explorer with multiple world-firsts and has joined the team as the new editor of News24 Outdoors, driven by Ford.
