Fast Food

No McDonalds hasn’t made its way to Cameroon, at least not yet nor has any other fast food chain, American or even Cameroonian. But alas there is food available here on the go and ready to eat- hot, cold, and in between. Now you won’t see hamburgers and fries with a milkshake anytime soon (at least not unless you are in the capital city and willing to spend more than 3x what you usually do on a meal) but sometimes the ‘fast food’ can really hit the spot.

Fast food can be found in many different situations. My personal favorite is when you are travelling. Instead of you driving up to a drive thru window, the food here actually comes to your window. Yep. As you travel and stop at different towns/villages along the way or even toll stops, children, women, adults will run up to the vehicle shouting whatever food they are selling. You pass the money to them and they pass the food- although you do need to be quick sometimes as you may not actually stop all the long and then the vendor will be chasing after the vehicle. Food sold in this manner various depending on the season and the region/road you are traveling on. Where I travel most, right now you often see oranges, baton de manioc (cassava), peanuts and beignets. But other places, like when I travel to the capital, you can get pineapple, mandarins, coconut, even meat.

Now for when you are not traveling but just around in town, there are two kinds of fast food. There is food that for the most part is available during the day either being sold in a particular location- like a vendor near the market- or you can see a child selling food just walking down the street. These kinds of food include: beignets, ‘popsicles’, yogurt, peanuts, hardboiled eggs, baton, croquettes (like hard beignet-ish snack), oranges, beans, ‘street meat’ (soya- meat on a stick). Then if you want something more like a meal rather than a snack, if you wait till the evening, women come out and prepare food on the side of the street. Some popular dishes include omelets (particularly spaghetti omelets- delish), roasted fish and baton or plantains, and bouillie.

I would say other than the obvious difference (choice of food), another big difference is that this food isn’t available 24/7 like some places back home. It can be very hit or miss- you may be really craving a particular vendor’s beans and beignets but maybe that day they are not there or all of the food is already gone. Another hit or miss can be the quality/cleanliness of the food. I would say the best thing is to find a few vendors you like and you trust to best ensure you don’t get sick later. And even then, you can never tell so be careful what you eat, particularly when traveling and thus stuck in a car.