University of Ghana Campus Life and Asanka Local

For the past two weeks or so I've been staying at the International Students Hostel (ISH) at the University of Ghana. Since its summer session, the campus is extremely quiet. The campus is beautiful. serene, lush, and huge. I haven't had the necessity to explore very much, except when I go for an occasional jog (and I reiterate, occasional).

Below is a photo of the main library on campus, Balme Library. 

Locally, the University of Ghana is also known as the University of Legon.

In my opinion, below are two of the most amazing creations ever. Now, I'm not a huge hard cider fan because its way too sweet. BUT, Savanna Dry is hands down the best hard cider I've ever tried. It's not sweet at all, and extremely dry - just how I like it... (thus, Savanna Dry- duh). And with 6% alcohol content, who needs beer? The second best invention I've stumbled across in Ghana is the MTN mobile stick. Its portable internet that connects to the cellular wi-fi. It's fast, reliable, portable, and only cost me about 50 GhC ($25) for 4GB of data. It's been a life-saver these past few weeks. I take my computer everywhere and am able to do research, check my email, etc. without having to worry about finding free wi-fi. A mobile internet stick would undoubtedly come in handy in New York as well...

I accompanied my friend, Katrina, to a photo shoot at Asanka Local in Osu. She's a freelance writer for a food magazine and decided to pitch a traditional African dish from Asanka to some kind of top 100 annual list. Don't want to spill too many details, so I'll leave it at that vague description...

Love the traditional decor.

Katrina hard at work photographing Juliana, a waitress who has worked at Asanka Local since it opened its doors seven years ago.

Katrina getting the inside scoop.

'Red-Red' is SO yummy. It's a hearty meal that I will typically eat with plain rice as well. 

'Red-Red' (bean stew) with Fried Plantains. 

Fufu (pounded cassava) in Groundnut (peanut) Soup with Salted Fish (kako).
wow that title required some deciphering, didn't it?

Instead of fish, groundnut soup can also be eaten with chicken, goat, or bushmeat (an opossum-looking mammal).