Food and Cooking

The people in The Gambia mainly eat fresh food which they grow or rear themselves or buy from local stalls, small shops and markets

They eat rice they have grown with most meals and often use ground up peanuts and millet. Cattle, sheep, goats, and poultry, are raised for local consumption.

They can buy imported goods from shops but these are expensive and often not as healthy as their own fresh food

Food is cooked fresh over a fire everyday in the compound or sometimes in a separate building or area. Large pots are used as cooking is for a lot of people,

The extended family shares the food. Meal time is an important time to be together and to welcome people, whether it is part of an everyday meal, a celebration or a religious festival.

Green tea or attaya is a popular drink. It is one of the few things that uses sugar... and a lot of it! It is a drink to be shared.