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<\/a><\/p>\nMost of the country is on land, except for two islands, which are nowhere near each other, and in fact, have an\u00a0entirely different country\u00a0<\/em>separating them. The capital of the country, Malabo, is located on the northern island.\u00a0 Having your capital off on an island away from most of your landmass?\u00a0 What a silly idea.\u00a0 *mumbles in British Columbia*<\/p>\n Equatorial Guinea is the only independent country in Africa which is majority Spanish speaking. It’s also, in a continent full of governments left in bad shape by colonialism, one of the worst offenders in terms of human rights.\u00a0 As in so many cases, the presence of substantial oil reserves has not helped the democracy situation much.\u00a0 Heck – look at Texas.<\/p>\n But enough politics.\u00a0 What about the food?\u00a0 Well, the extended riff on politics and geography is going to help cover the fact that our Equatorial Guinean meal consisted of probably the simplest dish to make we’ve done so far, and so this entry is going to be pretty darn short.\u00a0 The dish in question is a fish stew called “Pick a Pepper Soup.”<\/p>\n First – a trip back to our spice hookup for another new ingredient. Grains of Paradise.\u00a0 These things are also known as Guinea Pepper, so that’s a good sign, right?\u00a0 Except that Guinea Pepper is strictly speaking some OTHER random spice, also known as\u00a0 “Grains of Selim.”\u00a0 So we’ll stick with Grains of Paradise.<\/p>\n These are the seeds of a plant closely related to ginger and cardamom. You treat them like you would black pepper – dump them in a spice grinder or mortar, and mash them up to make a powder.<\/p>\n Then, you put them and literally every other ingredient in the pot all at once.<\/p>\n Here it is cooking:<\/p>\n And here it is on the table, with a decidedly non-Guinean beer.<\/p>\n And that’s it.\u00a0 Just, dump it all in the pot, cook it all together, done.<\/p>\n So how does it taste?\u00a0 Delicious, actually!\u00a0 In addition to the Grains of Paradise, the stew also contains cayenne pepper, a scotch bonnet pepper, and black pepper, so it’s got some bite to it.\u00a0 The snapper was firm enough to hold up to the seasoning and cooking time, and the vegetables soaked up the flavors nicely.<\/p>\n We’re definitely going to be looking for more ways to use the rest of this jar of Grains of Paradise.\u00a0 However, I DON’T think Equatorial Guinea is going to be at the top of the destination list when *waves vaguely at everything* ends.<\/p>\n Next up, we remain in Africa, but cross to the east side to visit Eritrea.<\/p>\n Recipe: There are no fewer than four “Guinea” countries in the world: Equatorial Guinea, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, and Papua New Guinea.\u00a0 Why? Imperialism!\u00a0 Also racism. “Guinea” was the English form of the Portuguese word for the region on the west side of … Continue reading <\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>
\nAnd you cook it for an hour.\u00a0 After an hour, you put in a tiny, tiny, amount of oil, then cook it for another five minutes.\u00a0 I have absolutely no idea why.\u00a0 And that’s it.\u00a0 That’s the whole recipe.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
\nPick a Pepper Soup<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"