Africa also produces good ginger; Li An from Cote d'Ivoire says it is needed every day.

“Hi! My name is Bony Lee. Bony is my family name in Africa, and Lee is my wife's family name. My father-in-law gave me a Chinese name, Li An.”

In 2006, Bony, who came from Cote d'Ivoire in Africa, followed love all the way, crossing 13249 kilometers over the ocean, from that faraway shore to Taiwan; and after many stumbles along the way, he finally chose to settle in Hualien and opened a “West African Cote d'Ivoire Little Kitchen,” using authentic Ivorian cooking to make friends with Taiwanese people.

wowAfrica, an African information platform that has long followed African affairs, recently invited Bony from Hualien to Taipei to prepare Ivorian specialties and share stories about food and about himself.

Discovering a different Africa, then looking back at Taiwan

“The reason we hold this series of events is that we hope to let everyone discover a different Africa through food, music and travel!”wowAfrica platform co-founder Lu Wei-chen said. Indeed, before truly setting foot on African soil, he knew nothing about Africa; but after going deep into Africa, he discovered that Africa also has wonderful people, things and places. “We hope that by starting from sharing stories, our understanding of Africa will no longer be a blank slate.”

Ho Pei-chia, who has been deep into Africa and in recent years has been running the wowAfrica African information platform, pointed out, “Is Africa only pitiful and in need of sympathy?” Based on her own firsthand experience deep in Kenya, part of Kenya's land is nourished by volcanic salt and is actually quite fertile; combined with abundant water and a suitable latitude, “the local dairy farming is actually very developed.” There are many cattle and sheep, and milk, yogurt and ice cream are all quite cheap.

“Africa's resources are very rich, but Africa's people are relatively poor,” Bony said helplessly. In response, Ho Pei-chia also said that Africa has many good things, but it lacks African homegrown brands, “such as shea.” When most consumers mention shea butter, they only connect it to a famous cosmetics brand's high-priced hand cream, and rarely know that it comes from Africa. “In fact, shea butter is a very common skincare product locally in Africa.”

“Actually, Africa has many things worth learning from,” Ho Pei-chia pointed out. For example, Pingtung is now planning to develop a cocoa industry, but the relevant knowledge about cocoa tree diseases may not be sound; perhaps it could learn from Africa, “after all, they have been developing the cocoa industry for a very long time.” “The more I study Africa, the more it makes me reflect on Taiwan and what is happening in the life around me,” Ho Pei-chia said.

[How to make Ivorian peanut stew sauce is here]

1. First, prepare diced tomato, minced garlic, diced onion and sliced ginger. Whatever spices you like to add, you can chop and set them aside too.

2. Once ready, add some water to the pot, put the spices and these diced vegetables into the pot, and stew for five minutes.

3. After five minutes, add peanut butter. How much to add depends on your preference (just the kind of peanut butter sold on the market; whichever brand and flavor you like, you can choose for yourself).

4. After adding the peanut butter, simmer the whole pot for another five minutes, and basically it is done (remember not to stew it too long!).

A small reminder: Of course, if you are serving many people, you can add more water, spices and seasonings, but control the amount of water and try not to add too much, otherwise your stew sauce will become too thin.