Salt and pepper, milk and beer

It's been a week since Philippe's birth, and though the family is still figuring out many things about its new domestic life, I'm going about my business with considerably more ease and much lower stakes than they. I prepare dinner most nights, clean what can't be left for the efficient maid, and spend hours just listening to Lucy, trying to be the voice of encouragement and congratulation.

A "cocktail" (juice mixture) Yves brought from
Benin, baobab fruit and pineapple.

If I were back in the States and living this life, though, I would go nuts. I'd hate being in the house all the time, cleaning, serving meals, running back and forth to the boutique across the way for a fresh baguette. But here and now, I'm amused by everything. It's not only by the opportunity to be close to my daughter's family, but to observe all the little details of life. The customs, brands, sights in the streets are all novel. They pique my curiosity and imagination.

Lotte filets

I've been doing most of the cooking and, to my surprise, doing well with it, even using many leftover of unknown date that I've been cleaning out of the refrigerator. I turned a bowl of desiccated cooked rice into a lovely rice pudding, and I fried cold, left-over mashed potatoes with smoked, sliced ham and onions. Since bringing the pantry up to date, I've turned out a plausible and tasty onion and cheese frittata despite the lack of broiler. Last night, after a trip to Casino, I made a cream-laden fish chowder with lots of bacon, to warm the heart of my Boston-born child. The fish I used was a meaty white fish called lotte. Even in the most modern grocery store, all the fish is sold fresh and whole. The clerk cleans and filets it for you once you've pointed to the ones you want.

Pepper grinder; potato ricer; "Cuisinart." Used
placed on floor, between legs, while one sits
on a little kitchen stool.

We have no salt or pepper shakers. Lucy buys salt of local production in a plastic bag. "Sel iode Moo Woor" (Moo Woor iodized salt) comes in larger crystals than our table salt, yet it's finer than sea salt. We just pinch what we need with our fingers. Using this rather than imported salt supports Senegalese industry. Pepper is the freshest, also pinched from a little jar after it has been ground by hand in a wooden mortar and pestle. I watched the last batch being prepared by Coco, who sat on a little stool in the kitchen with the mortar between her legs. She simply ground the peppercorns over and over until they were dust. She pounded with one arm and covered as much of the open vessel as possible with her free hand, to keep from breathing too much of the powerful powder.

Milk purchased 5 January, freshness date of
3 February

We buy milk from the boutique rather than at Casino because the same product can be had for much, much less money. When I first asked Almami for milk, he surprised me by asking which kind I wanted. This wasn't a question of skim or whole, but of warm or cold. This isn't the only place I've traveled where milk has very long freshness dates and doesn't require constant refrigeration beneath its foil seal. Why the American dairy industry hasn't managed to do this, I don't know. But it's very nice not to have to sniff the milk in the morning.

I've been enjoying a beer with Yves in the evening. I should have noticed what imported beers they stock at Casino, but I go straight for the ones I know we can't get at home—or at least, that I've never seen. Flag and Gazelle are made in Senegal. I don't know if they have export versions, but I doubt that the market is too big. Both are plain lagers, drinkable and light—just the thing for a hot climate. Flag has a map of Africa behind it's name; Gazelle has a more lively bottle, with an abstract Gazelle reminiscent of wooden sculpture.

Yves also drinks an import from Denmark, Bear Beer. I'd find this very endearing if only for its name and its brand mark. I've never seen it in the US, though perhaps we get it under a different brand and packaging? The fact that it's labelled in English makes me think that I might see it in an encyclopedic liquor store; or it might be an import people know in the UK.

I'm very happy that Lucy and Yves have assented to my proposal that tonight they go out together and free themselves of baby and mother-in-law for a few hours of intimacy—where they can have some privacy and an occasion to dress up to talk about the baby and the mother-in-law… I'll get to look after my little grandson and to nurse him myself, stored breast milk from a sanitized bottle. For myself, a crackly, fresh baguette with Nutella, food for the gods!