Up Station Mountain Club

African Media Leadership Conference, Lagos, Nigeria

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African Charter on Human & Peoples' Rights

African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights

Interesting Facts: Stockfish

by Emil I Mondoa, MD

Stockfish is an imported delicacy that features in the diets of West Africans, Caribbean people and Italians. Stockfish was expensive 200 years ago, and it is even more expensive today. Having eaten stockfish all my life, I was surprised about how little I knew about where it came from, why it is as hard as plank, never rots but could stink up a whole neighborhood and does something to plain vegetable sauces and other soups that nothing else does. My only quarrel with stockfish is that it is unsociable because of its smell. The following is a fine article from Wikipedia:

Stockfish is unsalted fish, especially cod, dried by sun and wind on wooden racks on the foreshore called flakes, or in special drying houses. The drying of food is the world's oldest known preservation method, and dried fish has a storage life of several years. The method is cheap and effective in suitable climates, the work can be done by the fisherman and family, and the resulting product is easily transported to market.
Cod is the most common fish used in stockfish production, while other whitefish, such as pollock, haddock, ling andtusk, are used to a lesser degree. Over the centuries, several variants of stockfish have evolved, notably salt cod (q.v.).Salting was not economically feasible before the 17th century, when cheap salt from southern Europe became available to the maritime nations of northern Europe.

Interesting Facts: Butterfruit or West African Plum

by Emil I Mondoa, MD

One of the many African foods I miss is what most people call the plum or bush butter. It is a completely different species of fruit than what people in the West call plums. It is native to the west coast of Africa, between Eastern Nigeria and Angola, and goes by the botanical name of Dacryodes edulis. Everyone knows that it is boiled or roasted and goes very well with fresh roasted or boiled corn. It presents a different more complex flavor when it allowed to ripen and become soft, and can be eaten at that time without cooking.

Recently, I came across a well researched book, entitled "Lost Crops of Africa", which details a large number of food crops that are little known outside of Africa. I was very impressed by the nutritional content of this fruit, which is mostly eaten as a snack in Africa. It turns out that this snack could have more nutritional power than the main course.