by totafab | May 10, 2024 | Dakar, Family, Food, Life, Senegalese Culture
In my house leftovers entered the stage with me. The kids pretend they like them and my husband makes tremendous efforts to eat them because, sometimes, I don’t offer an alternative. Leftover food is still kind of a tabou in this country. It’s mostly for the poor,...
by totafab | Oct 27, 2022 | Dakar, Food, Life, Senegalese Culture
Walking around Dakar you will see makeshift tents at every street corner, tied to poles, so that they kind of make a “room”. It is the gargottes, little low-profile restaurants with only a table and a few benches, where you can have breakfast (sandwiches with eggs,...
by totafab | Jul 13, 2022 | Family, Food, Life, Senegalese Culture, Teranga
Tabaski and I go back to 5 october 2014. A friend of mine invited me to his sister’s house and I happily said yes, not knowing what to expect. I was imagining a Christmas-like kind of day: you eat a lot, you drink, you chat and then, when you can’t eat anymore you...
by totafab | Jul 6, 2022 | Family, Food, Life, Senegalese Culture, Teranga
Next week-end is Tabaski. Tabaski is the Senegalese name of Aid el Kebir, the mutton feast. In honor of the supreme sacrifice that Abraham was ready to offer, killing his son because God asked him to, Muslims today sacrifice a mutton. Just like all traditional...
by totafab | Jun 15, 2022 | Dakar, Food, Senegalese Culture
When my sister came back home after living one year in Canada, in the glorious 90’s, she would tell me about something I considered fabulous: the dépanneur. This legendary dépanneur was a small shop that sold anything in small doses, at the weirdest times (for us in...
by totafab | May 6, 2022 | Dakar, Food, Senegalese Culture, Teranga
One of the most beautiful things about Senegal for me is tea, which here is called attaya. Chinese green tea boiled for a long time with little water, lots of sugar and sometimes mint, which in wolof is called nanà. I especially like it because I don’t have to make...