Grocery Shopping in Cape Coast

98% of all shopping done in this fishing village is open air like this.  

We buy our produce from "Sella"  The huge mangos are to die for.  The pineapple is very sweet and not acidic so you can eat a lot without getting cankers.  They import apples from South Africa.  Bananas grow on the trees in the yard and they are only about 5" long.  The limes are great but VERY seedy!  We can also get tomatoes - they look like baby pumpkins - locals never eat them fresh, they grind them with a pestal and mortar into stews.  Onions are available and very strong, locals pronounce it with a long "o".   Carrots are regular length but warty.  We've also found yams, potatoes and occasionally we can find cabbage and eggplant.  There are a few other weird things like garden eggs, okra etc. that we're trying one at a time.  We must scrub ALL produce and soak for 2 minutes in a water/bleach solution before we refrigerate.  Everything is always peeled before eating, and vegetables are always cooked.  The produce is reasonably priced.      

These snails are still creeping and the size of baseballs - I was never really fond of Escargot anyway!

Maybe someday we'll be brave and try to cook a crab.

There are many tables with hunks of unidentifiable marine life that has an unappetizing odor.

Locals eat a LOT of smoked fish, no need to clean them or cut anything off first - which is why I will NEVER eat anything that has fish in it - and I used to love seafood!

We will go 3.5 hours east into Accra every 6 weeks to shop in an indoor store called Shoprite.  Nearly everything here is ridiculously expensive!  For instance, 4 small chicken breasts are about 15 cedis - the exchange rate is 1.519 - so $10 USA.  4 oz. of Yogurt is 3 cedis, a single slice of cheese is 10 cedis, a can of corn is 4 cedis, a 4 pack of toilet paper (with very small rolls I might add) is 8 cedis.  I feel blessed to have internet access for recipes (and know how to cook from scratch) even so - Lynn has already lost about 20 lbs!  I think the next time I go to Winco, I will literally shed tears of gratitude for the ABUNDANCE, quality and affordability of EVERYTHING!!!