What I managed to mange in Togo

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Ne dis à personne que j'adore manger! Don't tell anyone that I love to eat! Msiniseme kama anapenda kula! I was keen on trying different Togolese dishes while in Lome last weekend. The first place I went after arriving was a Pizzeria to go meet some Global Shapers. I told them, "I want to know the best places for pizza in Lome but I definitely didn't come to eat pizza here". And from what happened while in Lome, I didn't come to Togo to go eat rice either. Now, that's pretty awesome :-)

My first real meal in Lome was at a spot (I still don't know the name). I was there with +Wilfried Toussiné & +Amen AMOUZOU. We had akpan which is made of corn dough, together with some peppery sauce & mayonaise. We ordered two big tilapias and a lot of fried plantain. The food was tatalalicious to say the least. No wonder Wilfried's friend Rachel was oohing and aahing about Togolese food being better than Ghanaian food. Even the tilapia. The spot didn't have any Bissap which was disappointing. Amen got a coke - they have huge bottles of coca cola. Wilfried got a Youki drink. I followed the drinks seller to his fridge to see all he had to offer. I ended up picking a canned drink that is actually wine. Yeah, canned wine. Only in Togo :-)
The next day, Wilfried called me saying that her mother was going to make fufu. I didn't know Togolese had their own fufu. Even the Ewes in Ghana don't really have fufu. No, Wilfried's mum was not changing her Sunday cooking menu to suit me. They were just going to have fufu. I headed over to Wilfried's maison and we had fufu with guinea fowl soup. The soup was unlike anything I'd seen or had, it had garden eggs in it. I liked, favorited, plussed and retweeted. We had 2 Youkis - pom pom and mixed fruits.
My pal +GABRIELLA KODJO came to pick me up and we headed to Pure Plage. +Christopher Balliet joined us there. Pure Plage is really nice! It's a relatively new beach in Lome, folks were surprised how I even knew about it. But why should you be? Je suis le Mighty African. We had all cocktails but like I normally do, I got the cocktail with the most sounding African name. Bora Bora. It had a lot of tropical fruits in the mix too. I left Pure Plage for Restaurant Belle-Vue to see +Coco Van Mensvoort (of Sugacane fame) who I know via +Museke. It's interesting to note that Belle-Vue has a Pizzeria and then a restaurant. I actually met a guy called Ato having dinner with Coco and her friend. Yeah, what are the chances of seeing 2 Ato's together in Togo droit!? They were finishing off dinner so I headed off to mine.
A friend had suggested I eat akoumé while in Lome. Word got to Wilfried's mum that I wanted some and in the evening, she hooked me up big time for dinner. She added ademe as a sauce with lots of fish. Youki might be more popular than Coca Cola if what I saw in Lome is anything to go by. Wilfried loves Alvaro and wants to see it in Lome. I want to see more bottles of Bissap, that's whatsup!
On my way back to Accra, Wilfried took me to a really nice pastry called Saveurs du Monde. I got a sandwich that reminded me of Subway in the US. Yeah, it's not really local but you know Togo is a country heavily influenced by France. I had a ham sandwich, The rest of the detail is in the tweet above. I took the prospectus of the pâtisserie as a souvenir. Hehe.
We bought Tampico as the liquid accompaniment for the solid. I walked into Accra and finally boarded a car to Accra. And then I head some woman shouting "Tsofi! Chofi!" Guilty pleasure. It's my pleasure. I bought some of the banned substance because I love it and I can't find it in many places. It's rather interesting to have found it right near Togo. Do banned substances in Ghana go towards our borders? Maybe. If it's food, give me more. J'aime manger. When I had dinner tonight - rice and stew - I realised I had just done a weekend without rice. Cuisine Togolaise est bon. I wanted to have hanvi dokpome but couldn't find some readily. Next time. More Togolese Cuisine :-)

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