The B series: 4. Baguette!

Ah French colonialism. The French were officially kicked out of Senegal in 1960, but their legacy lives on in the form of bread! Before coming to Senegal I never really understood the importance of bread. Here bread is eaten at least once a day, although that would be a very skimpy bread day for the Senegalese. 

When I was living with my host family, they bought at least four loaves of bread for breakfast alone. Keep in mind that my family fed over 10 people, so this was not too ridiculous of an amount. Even so, they would always buy half a baguette just for me. The general breakfast meal consists of half a baguette with any variation of protein on the inside and nescafé coffee (really, the only kind of coffee that is found here!). If the bread is brought to the home then they generally eat it with butter or chocopain (which is the cheaper version of nutella, still good!). If breakfast is eaten on the go, you can get scrambled eggs put inside or some sort of bean and vegetable mix. These sandwiches can be bought at small little stands in the street, prices vary but you will never need to pay more then the equivalent of 20 cents for one of these. 

Bread accompanies just about every meal here, and it is an absolute requirement for street food. Not only that, but there are so many variations on the baguette and of the common breads. There are small loaves that are soft and almost like sourdough. There are long skinny baguettes that are hard and crusty and not too good for much of anything except swiping up the remains of your meal. There are wide baguettes that are great for sandwiches, and soft long ones that are good for snacking with chocopain. There are also round breads that are sweeter which are in just about every little boutique, but I rarely see anyone eating them. 

Patisseries and boulangeries are everywhere, and the main baking hours are early in the morning and in the middle of the day for the evening rush. When I get up in the morning and go walking I see the delivery boys driving around with big boxes of bread on either side of their bicycle. There is a new boulangerie that opened up semi near my apartment and sometime before I leave I will get up early and walk over to get a fresh baked baguette right out of the oven. 

You can see how well we have adapted!