Fast food in Cameroon
First of all, there isn't any comparison between fast food here in Cameroon, and that of the United States or Canada. There, fast food is relatively cheap, usually unhealthy, and full of chemicals. Here, "fast food" is quite cheap, sometimes saturated with grease (but sooooo good), and with no chemicals, as it is all home-made or made on the street. Let me give you some examples.
This is what lunch on the road consisted of our first day of travel, either brought with us or picked up at different points along the way:
1. Beignets: deep fried balls of dough - so good! Especially if they are rolled in sugar.
2. Soya: cooked meat with spices (sometimes including peppe) bought at the side of the road from a street vendor (This time I didn't get any, because I had other stuff to eat)
3. Plantain chips brought as a snack by yours truly
4. Baguettes: those lovely breads of French Cameroun...half a one each - now that's just perfect! And I just happened to have along a small bucket of Tartina, the lovely chocolate spread rampant in this country. Oh why does Canada not have this? It's a mystery to me - it's so good!
5. Sugar-coated Peanuts: peanuts are actually grown here, so we do not get them packaged in mundane plastic boxes. Here, we have exciting home packaging, re-used beer bottles! For this reason we have the little bit of irony: "12 years old" staring up at us from the outside of a bottle of peanuts (or ground nuts as they are called here). I don't know exactly how these are made, but they are really good - the end result is a groundnut covered in a hard coat of crystallized sugar. Delicious! (Another thing I should learn how to make before I travel back to Canada)
On the next leg of our journey the following day, the meal consists of half a baguette, 2 sugar beignets and a yogurt, totaling to under 625 francs (500 francs is about a Canadian dollar). Also, the Conrods picked up a bottle of Pringles from a "Bonjour", the American-style convenience stores now emerging here. Now for the shocker: you remember I said that my whole meal was under 625 francs on the road? A single baguette is usually 100 francs. That one bottle of Pringles was 2.100 francs, which means you could buy 21 baguettes for the same price as that one bottle of North American goodness. Ah well - that goodness is worth it once in a while. Yet, isn't that outrageous? 21 baguettes for 1 bottle of Pringles. Yet they are well enjoyed.
