I met James Griffin

[Sherri]

Originally Posted by tstew

That's funny. I just reconnected with a guy whose parents were missionaries in Liberia for another organization. He happens to live near me, and we're going to get together for some chop. There are a few West African restaurants in Houston, but they are Ghanain and Nigerian, so the food is a little different. I prefer Liberian food, so I generally make that myself.

Maybe I'll get a chance to meet you all some day.

I actually ordered two huge containers of Palm Oil on the internet last year and gave them to my MIL for her birthday. She was thrilled! There's nothing like Country Chop made with Palm Oil. She makes it SO good! I have tried a few times with regular oil and tomato paste, but it lacks something without the palm oil. I use oil, onions, collard greens, red pepper, and salmon. Then we eat it with rice and bananas. It's one of those things that Eddie would NEVER in a million years try if I just made it and he hadn't grown up eating it! It looks awful.

Strangely enough, in Costa Rica, we drove by a huge palm oil plant that was West Africa Palm Oil. They imported the trees years ago to Costa Rica, and they produce more W. African Palm Oil than they do in West Africa!

[tstew]

Originally Posted by Sherri

I actually ordered two huge containers of Palm Oil on the internet last year and gave them to my MIL for her birthday. She was thrilled! There's nothing like Country Chop made with Palm Oil. She makes it SO good! I have tried a few times with regular oil and tomato paste, but it lacks something without the palm oil. I use oil, onions, collard greens, red pepper, and salmon. Then we eat it with rice and bananas. It's one of those things that Eddie would NEVER in a million years try if I just made it and he hadn't grown up eating it! It looks awful.

Strangely enough, in Costa Rica, we drove by a huge palm oil plant that was West Africa Palm Oil. They imported the trees years ago to Costa Rica, and they produce more W. African Palm Oil than they do in West Africa!

Houston has a fairly large West African population. You can actually buy Palm oil and even Palm Butter (it is a concentrate in a can and is basically identical to what you make over there) in several general grocery stores here.

There is even a West African supermarket where you can buy pretty much anything you need. I may have to put together a little care package...

[Sherri]

Originally Posted by tstew

Houston has a fairly large West African population. You can actually buy Palm oil and even Palm Butter (it is a concentrate in a can and is basically identical to what you make over there) in several general grocery stores here.

There is even a West African supermarket where you can buy pretty much anything you need. I may have to put together a little care package...

I'm salivating already. I love all the food I've ever had from Africa - Liberian, Nigerian, and Kenyan so far. But I would love to try it all! There's an African grocery store in Nashville that I've driven by a few times, but I'm going to stop one of these days.

The only thing I've eaten in Africa that I hated was "Wheatabix", which is actually made in England I think. It's these little cereal rectangles that dissolve into nothing. They are SO gross! I just saw them here in the grocery store the other day and I thought, "they are following me!!!!"