Hey everyone, I hope you're having an amazing day.
It's Mark Wiens.
I'm in Accra, Ghana, and today is going to be an extremely special day.
Jay from Mukasechik, she is a food entrepreneur.
I think she has a restaurant.
She's a food blogger, she's a food personality, and she just seems like an amazing person.
And she's gonna take us on a Ghanaian food tour.
I know we're gonna visit a market.
We're gonna go to some of her favorite spots and eat some incredible Ghanaian food.
I'm really looking forward to it and I'm gonna share all the food and this entire day with you in this video right now.
Nice to meet you.
Nice to meet you.
Nice to meet you.
All right, we have met up with Jay.
Yay!
Also, Mukasechik.
Yes!
Yes.
You're the first person who's got this right.
Okay, cool.
So Mukase means kitchen.
You're a food entrepreneur, you blog, you vlog, you have a restaurant, you cater, you do everything.
Jay, where are we heading to first?
So I'm taking you to a friend of mine.
Okay.
She owns a chop bar.
Awesome.
Yes, so I'm taking you behind, what happens behind the chop bar.
Awesome.
So a chop bar is just, it's a local restaurant.
A local restaurant.
All right, that's the first stop.
We're at our first spot here.
We're walking to the back of the kitchen here, where they're nice to meet you.
Light soup Oh wow, the aromas in here.
As I wish you could smell, it's just like a, it's a bubbling spice sauna back here.
The aromas of those bubbling soups.
You can smell all sorts of things, probably the palm nut oil.
You can smell the fish.
You can smell the chilies.
Oh wow, wow.
So they're making a variety of different soups, light soups, which are to be eaten, with a variety of different starches, things like fufu.
But things are just bubbling away.
Giant vats are bubbling away, some very creative stove systems where the gas is set up inside of a car wheel.
That just makes the perfect holder for one of these giant pots.
That's absolutely genius, I love it.
This is the tomato basting.
Wow, that is just bubbling away.
This is the Bangkok.
I have so much respect for any woman who can do this.
It's made in big pots, so if you're a woman who can stir a big pot of Bangkok, then you're the real deal.
It's so beautiful to make it but it's so difficult at the same time.
It's a gigantic overflowing pot vessel sitting on a car wheel over fire and that's just like a just a giant, giant amount.
Wow, that's beautiful.
Yeah, and it's been steered by a very slim lady.
But a very strong, very, very strong lady.
That's amazing.
And yeah, Jay was explaining, it's so much work.
So much work.
Takes so much muscle and effort to make it.
Let me tell you, making bangku, stirring it like that, that's rowing on the next level.
You can tell how sticky and dense it is, all of that pressure.
She has to just muscle it.
So much respect for her making that.
And we grind it in a local grinder.
It's called .
Are you okay?
Very amazing.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Amazing.
This place is... I'm so happy.
You are so happy.
I'm so happy.
This place, we're all happy.
Grated okra.
We're gonna come back here to eat because they're just cooking and it still needs a while to cook.
We're gonna go eat somewhere else and then we're gonna come back to eat the food that we just have watched them prepare.
This is a very popular spot.
What are we gonna eat here?
We're gonna eat beans, boiled beans, and ripe plantains.
Okay.
It's a very busy place.
We're here to eat plantains and beans.
This is a very popular spot.
You can already see the line forming at the front, but Jay said in a little while, once it becomes the middle of lunchtime, it will be packed.
There will be a line all the way down the road.
But they're back here.
You can see the plantains.
They're frying the plantains.
You can smell that sweet banana-y aroma back here and that oil.
Okay, let's ripen.
They always have the right consistency of plantain and the black-eye bean sauce is amazing.
The secret to having good black-eye bean sauce is the palm oil.
Now they've invited us into the place where they are serving it up.
Oh, it looks like they have a seating section over there too.
Okay, but most people are taking away.
You can see everybody is, lots of people are taking away already.
So they're scooping everything up at the front.
They're mixing the plantains with the beans, with some cassava powder.
Gari, it's called gari.
Okay, and it just smells incredible.
It looks delicious.
We go wash our hands outside.
That's okay.
Thank you.
And now we go back to eat.
You can smell the aroma of probably the palm oil, especially.
Yeah, the palm oil and the leaf.
And the leaf, yeah, along with that leaf.
It looks incredible.
Start getting in.
Okay, so taste this first.
First taste the beans?
Yes.
Okay, oh man.
Oh, it's hot.
Oh, it's awesome.
It has that incredible nutty starchiness.
Yeah, those beans are very starchy.
They're almost held together, almost like a, like a dough with that cassava powder.
One thing that you can't see in the camera is how hot it is.
Everything is so hot it's right out of.
Oh yes, those plantains are right out of.
You gotta eat fast so you don't burn your fingers.
I got the plantain with the beans as well.
The sweetness of the plantain comes in.
The beans are actually kinda sticky.
Then you've got that plantain which has that sweet tropical taste to it.
It's really hearty, it's really filling.
But it's really tasty.
Jay knows the best food for sure.
Thank you very much.
Bye bye.
Oh, all the sweat.
But that was a delicious dish.
Great flavors, great combination.
I fully enjoyed it.
This is the restaurant where they're doing, where they're cooking, where we saw them cooking.
Jay said in a couple hours when we come back, that restaurant will be packed.
But for now, I think we're going to a market.
Where are we now, Jay?
We're at the Nima Market.
So Nima Market is popular for its spices, dried spices.
It's vibrant, it's colorful.
The sights and sounds, you can smell the spices.
As soon as you get here.
Yeah, as soon as we stepped out of the car you can just smell the aroma of the spices, and we're gonna walk around and explore this market.
Gay was telling me that this is one of her favorite markets.
It's one of my favorite markets because they have a lot of variety and it's not very crowded, so you can take your time and move in.
And I think they also have a lot of uniqueness, because it's a Muslim community.
So I love coming here.
So this is where they mail.
When you buy the spices fresh in the market, you bring it here and they can mail it to you.
Okay, okay.
That's what that loud grinding sound is right back here.
I think one of the mamas here is kind of showing us around.
And they happen to be milling, they happen to be grinding chilies right now.
You can kind of feel it in your eyes.
Hello.
What's your name?
Malik.
Malik, nice to meet you.
What's up?
Hey, hey, hey!
What's up?
You can smell the aroma of cloves.
There's black pepper.
Oh, here's all the seeds.
Pumpkin seeds?
Okay.
Agushi.
Whoa, it just keeps unraveling.
Yeah, toffee, coconut toffee.
Coconut toffee.
Caramelized sugar.
Ah, okay, but it's made from coconut.
Okay, I'm gonna, yeah, it's pretty solid.
I'm gonna try a, Okay, you could either put the whole thing in your mouth, or you lick it.
I'll do the licking.
Yeah, that does taste like caramel, but you can taste the coconut in there, very sweet.
That is a lot of taffy though.
I'm gonna do the licking method for a little while.
So we believe that it helps in potency for men.
For men and women?
Men.
Oh, for men.
For men only.
Okay, okay.
Tiger nuts.
They're like little dry, look like kind of like withered up.
This is supposed to be good for you.
They're kind of dry, but as you continue chewing them, you get a sweetness and a starchiness.
And some juice.
And a little bit of juice.
I'm loving just walking around.
The sights, the smells.
Ah yeah, everything is vibrant here.
Hello.
Hello.
This is made from millet.
Made from millet?
Yes.
It's a very popular drink.
It's called pula.
Wow, that's a very very red umbrella.
We are stopping for a drink and she has these millet balls and she's manually grinding it with water and sugar into a drink, a beverage.
Something I've never tried before.
What are you eating?
That's you.
Yeah, you're so happy.
I'm sitting on this bench.
I don't even know where the bench came from.
It just kind of appeared here and I sat down.
But Micah is loving it.
Micah has so many friends.
Micah, say hello.
I think you guys are, how old are you?
I think you are almost the same age.
Okay.
So it's made from rice flour.
Oh wow, that's a lot of honey.
That's really good, really sweet.
They're like fluffy pancakes made from rice flour.
What is this?
Wow.
That looks like an amazing texture.
Thank you.
Oh, that one's amazing, the ginger.
Oh, the ginger in there, and that is like peanut butter.
That's like really dense peanut butter.
The ginger is so strong that it actually, I mean, it burns a little bit.
Oh man, that peanut one with the ginger is awesome.
Thank you very much.
Bye bye.
Bye, bye.
Also, she grabs it off the top of her head.
That is amazing skill.
It's made.
It's made from maize, peanuts and spices and fries.
She reaches up, she grabs it, puts it in a plastic bag.
That skill, that balance.
One of my favorite things is fried milk.
Fried milk?
It's called fried cheese.
Ah, okay.
So you dip it in the suya, so it's in there.
Cool.
That's peanuts and pepper.
Okay.
And by the way, It's fried cheese.
Oh yeah, Jay, this is great.
That is so good.
Yeah, that's like, it almost tastes like cottage cheese, which is then deep fried.
A little bit of a sour taste to it.
Crispy on the outside.
Jay just keeps ordering more snacks.
As we were eating that cheese, passing behind us is a lady who has some kind of eggs.
Are they hard boiled eggs?
And there the eggs go.
Thank you.
Cheers.
Oh, that sauce.
Oh, and the egg is really juicy too.
The onion is great.
That humidity is very strong today.
Hello.
Food.
So this is called Burkina.
It's made from fresh milk and they have the best ones in Nima.
Nima makes the best Burkina.
Whoa, it's thick.
It's almost like yogurt.
Oh, it's like yogurt.
Okay, I was sort of expecting it to be a liquid.
It's more like yogurt.
It's almost like a cereal.
Yeah, that's like yogurt and cereal.
It tastes like yogurt and grape nuts.
If you finish you'll buy all That smells amazing.
Stopping next for some kind of a deep-fried, ball-shaped donut.
Oh, this is the Buff Roads, okay.
Okay, cool.
Oh!
Good, really hot.
Hot and fresh.
Fresh and crunchy, very soft inside.
Yeah.
It's really hot, it's really crispy, and then on the inside it is very fluffy.
It's so hot.
Where are we headed next?
Oh, back at the same place?
Okay, back where we watched them cook the food this morning, that's where we're gonna go have lunch.
Oh, this is gonna be a highlight, this is what I'm really looking forward to.
We made it back.
This is where we started this morning, where we saw them cooking that amazing food, and this is where we're gonna have lunch.
What's that?
So Jay ordered for me the bangku and I think the goat meat soup.
That's what I'm gonna eat for lunch.
They have everything here in these pans.
You can get takeaway, you can sit in the backyard.
This is amazing, it's a chop bar, it's a local restaurant with all those dishes.
You choose your starch and you choose your soup and then they dish it out.
Okay, and we are sitting down for lunch.
Gotta wash our hands and it looks incredible.
Thank you very much.
Okay, what did you get?
Wow.
That's so good?
I got the bangku, which is That was the big pot that we saw her mixing in the morning, right with the like rowing a boat.
That's, whoa, okay, that's what I had to try.
And I didn't realize at first, but it's so sticky, I can see her dishing it out.
It's really sticky because of the okra the chopped up okra so that gives it that kind of slimy factor, but with a good hunk of goat in there.
Take a piece of the bangko with kind of your three fingers?
Or all of your fingers, okay.
Oh wow, that's really smooth in texture and really kinda sticky.
Okay, so I got the bangku.
Okay, for my first bite, I'll just kinda dip it into that soup.
Ah, you kinda almost like dip it.
Oh, I'm gonna go for one of those chilis on my first bite.
Yes.
I'm a chili, I'm crazy for chilis.
And you can see even, oh yeah, there's like sticky strands.
That's from the okra.
Mmm.
Oh, chili is okay.
The bangko has this amazing sour taste to it.
And it's corn.
Okay, really smooth.
Yeah, the way she mixed that.
And then that soup, that soup is delicious.
It adds the meatiness of the goat to it, adds the slimy factor from the okra.
That chili is great.
Oh, really good.
I love it.
Don't let The sliminess kinda like I mean it's slimy but that acts so good, because then you can pick it up with the bangku and you get all that flavor just embedded from that soup.
That's the natural thickening agent.
I'm just gonna pick this up like a drumstick.
Awesome.
Oh yeah.
It's tender but at the same time it has some texture to it, a little bit of elasticity.
But the flavor, the natural meatiness, goatiness of that, It's awesome.
She is just enjoying it to the max.
That's awesome.
And yeah, the food here is top notch.
It's really incredibly good.
I'm loving this dish.
It goes so well with the banh cu.
Those chilies are delicious.
Mix in with a little bit of that goat meat.
Okay, and I lost my little piece of banku down there in the soup.
Okay, now we've got it all.
Okay, now I've got the full option.
What a dish.
Oh man.
The meatiness of that goat.
Sometimes you gotta eat kind of fast before it slides right out of your fingers.
I've reached the bottom of my bowl.
Just have some of that soup left with some of the vegetables in there and you can actually even.
You see some people, they kind of lift it to their mouth and just drink the soup.
But another method is to just grab some of that soup and because it has that sliminess in it you can get just enough in your fingertips and just kind of slurp it up.
Then you just keep on enjoying that flavor.
With that gulp.
Is it okay to slurp?
Okay.
What a meal.
How was your fufu?
Amazing, I am so full.
This is, after you finish this meal, you just wanna sit back in these chairs.
Oh, it's quite an effort to get up from that chair.
Well, that's the type of meal that you immediately needed to take a nap after you finish.
Wow, on our way out of the restaurant, here's the sign.
It's called Peace Place Football.
Oh, okay, it looks like you can catch a football match here when there's a football match too.
Oh, 6.30 p.m.
Oh, we should be back at 6.30 p.m. for football and more food.
This is the spot.
So cool.
I feel restless.
You look a little confused.
So we're gonna end this Ghanaian food tour right now because we are so full and so happy, but it has been an amazing time hanging out with jay.
Uh, eating.
Everything from everything that we ate has been delicious and jay is just extremely fun to hang out with.
She's so So much fun to eat with.
And I'll have all of her links, all of her information below.
Be sure to check out her Instagram, her catering, her blogging.
Thank you.
What else?
Everything else.
Yeah, she has videos.
She publishes YouTube videos too.
So I'll have all the links in the description box.
Be sure to check them out.
Follow Jay now.
She's so cool.
And she knows all about Ghanaian food.
Yeah, such incredible food we've tried today.
Thanks again jay, thank you.
Thank you very much.
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Goodbye from ghana.
Thanks for watching.
