New Guinean Cuisine

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Overview of New Guinean Cuisine History
The earliest information over the methods of Guinea cuisine is offered by cookbooks printed during the latter half of the 20th century. This is the only written information and culinary archive we have so far. Still, no printed documents show how many peoples passed and influenced the Guinea cuisine, and how many methods have been keep during the time from ancient times. It is well known how Guinea cuisine combines traditional vegetables and fruits and also has special dishes made with fresh fish that can be easily found in the ocean. Although the Guinea cuisine was not so well known in the past in the Western countries or even on the other continents, nowadays the great number of immigrants coming from Guinea show to the world what real African food means. Guinea cuisine knew over the years many influences, either we talk here about the colonization or the adaptation of imported foods they all had a great influence in developing a unique style with exquisite flavors. Trades made with other countries helped a lot in what we call today Guinea cuisine. For instance, the peppers so famous in the New World were brought to Guinea at the beginning of the 20th century. Long before that, Guinea people were making trades with the Arab world taking from them spices like cloves, cinnamon or mint. In the same time, it’s been said that the American chili was introduced to the West African cuisine by the Europeans right after Columbus sailed to America. Still, with all the influences form different peoples, Guinea cuisine remains a great mixture of native ingredients simply cooked and easily available.

Special Equipment for New Guinean Cooking
Most of the Guinea equipment for cooking is traditional ones. Mainly this equipment is hand crafted and wood is the prime material used. These cooking tools are made like work of art having a double function, first serving as means to cook and second it represents statement of their culture. Still besides rustic cooking tools Guinea cuisine combines standard instruments found in any kitchen allover the world such as serving spatulas, spoons, forks turners, scrapers. Some other kitchenware that u might find useful while cooking a special Guinea dish are: kitchen knives, kitchen slicers, measuring cups and measuring spoons, miscellaneous utensil, mixing bowls, skimmers and strainers. A special cooking tool often used in Guinea cuisine, and not only, but all over African territory, are banana leaves. These tools are famous for their capacity of flavoring any dish. Chicken meat is often boiled like this and served with a lot of vegetables.

New Guinean Food Traditions and Festivals
Situated on the West Coast of Africa, Guinea has three main Festivals. These are the “Referendum Day” held on September 28, ”Independence Day” on October the 2nd and “Anniversary of CMRN” held on April the 3rd. At this special events food is the main attraction and Guinea show to the world how complex their cuisine can be. Dishes made with special ingredients, dishes that combine fine tastes of seafood with pastes, stews made with Chicken or Beef are a delight for the natives or travelers. Along with all this food can be also served a fine wine made after special recipes. Beside this three main festivals, Guinea has also some public holidays, such as New Year’s Day, Id al-Fitr, Labor Day, Easter, Mouloud, All Saints’ Day and Anniversary of Women's Revolt held on the 27th of August. None of these festivals can be related to only one dish, since Guinea cuisine is very complex and has deeply rooted traditions. Generally food consumed during this holidays has a lot of starchy items using also light meat especially Chicken and fish everything being garnished with tasty sauces. Still, there are some ingredients that can be easily found in any kind of food served during the festivals. Peanuts are considered to be the staples of the Guinea cuisine and can be used to garnish either soups or stew or prepared along other vegetables and fruits as desserts, snacks or appetizers.

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Many centuries ago, Guinea people had hunting as a main occupation. Because of this the main ingredient in the country’s cuisine was meat. The interesting thing about this meat is that it wasn’t a regular meat that most people are used to eat, but the meat of whatever animal people could hunt, thus it wasn’t an unusual thing if a family had a crocodile, monkey or even antelope meat on their table. Today, dishes containing such meats are considered to be delicacies and they are only served in a few restaurants in the country. Fishing was another greatly spread occupation among people in Guinea, thus the food was also very rich in fish and seafood dishes. After they had discovered farming, Guinea people have started to grow vegetables, fruit trees and also to breed domestic animals, such as sheep, goats, cattle, and of course poultry. This way they improved a lot their life style and also their cooking. The northern tribes have brought most of these animals here in order to trade them for other products. They have imported these animals from the West Asian tribes.