soup or stew is one of the most typical fl avor combinations, along
with chilis. There really aren’t any African recipes—just a few basic techniques
used for a handful of ingredients. There’s a very interesting account
of African cooking written by a slave named Olauda Equiano in the
West Indies in the 18th century. The food he described is very simple:
goat meat or poultry, pepper, plantains, yams, beans, and corn. Equiano also mentions some interesting customs, including the
fact that the head of the household eats alone, and the wives and
slaves eat afterward. It is still customary for men and women to
eat separately. He also mentions that a bit of stew is always poured
on the ground to feed the ancestors. Equiano also stresses the
importance of hand washing. In general, Africans don’t eat off individual plates; instead, there’s
a common bowl (or sets of bowls), and everyone takes from it with
their hands. Oddly, they don’t usually drink during a meal, but there
is alcohol, including various kinds of beer fermented from grains
and fruits. Africans don’t have many food avoidances. Apparently, they once
would not eat primates, but there’s a huge trade in smoked monkeys
now. In fact, several species are threatened with extinction. Many
African peoples don’t eat eggs, and in Ethiopia and southward, fi sh
are taboo.Aboriginal Australia
Aboriginal Australia provides an interesting point of contrast
with other cultures, primarily because its encounter with the West
happens so late and so tumultuously, and such an entirely different
cuisine comes with a completely transplanted culture that the two
really don’t mix. That is, the English cuisine that arrives in the 19th
century does not adopt local plants and animals, and the indigenous
foodways are maintained—at least for a while—though they’re
almost completely abandoned today.