The Journey Begins... "off" to Congo-Kinshasa!

Off we go to Congo-Kinshasa!!

 Happy New Year everyone! I wish you all the best in 2011, especially my classmates who will be graduating this year! My journey begins this day in Congo-Kinshasa, a relatively large African country in the middle of the contient. During my week in this place, I will be exploring the diet of its people. In my research of the country, I have found that the "staples" of their diet include:
-rice
-bananas
-yams
-beans
-fruit like papayas and mangos
-corn
-fish
-peanuts (which I will be eating in the form of natural peanut butter).
-cassava

I will be replacing my diet this week with these items, in order to hopefully prove that I can be just as happy in the midst of putting my American diet away. By the week's end, you will know how this travel has effected me with descriptions of different Congolese recipes I will have tried with these ingredients, as well as the preparation and eating of these foods. I will eat no "American" food at all this week and no food that strays from those in the diet of the Congolese people. The only two issues I have encountered with the diet of these people is their eating of fish (I am a vegetarian) and cassava (I have not been able to find this in the grocery store yet). However, I have come to the conclusion that there are plenty of other staples that I can eat all week, and that not eating one  or two will not hurt. If anyone knows where I can find cassava though, please let me know- I thought I would try Whole Foods.

To avoid confusion, I would also like to clarify that this week I am "travelling" to Congo-Kinshasa, not to be confused with its neighbor Congo-Brazzaville. Congo-Kinshasa is often referred to as the Democratic Republic of the Congo and is the country my finger landed on a few weeks ago.

I would also like to source my research so far. The CultureGrams database has helped me a great deal in finding very accurate cultural facts for this adventure. Thank you CultureGrams!

Well, I'm off to start preparing my first meal of Congo-Kinshasa! Talk to you soon!