In my recent post ‘In my grandmother’s footsteps’  I explained why I have started saving for a trip to China and I’d like to share with you a few photos from a number of albums my father still has from the thirties.

I’d also like to make a request, if I may, I have entered Intrepid Travel’s latest competition and would really appreciate you checking it out. It’s a long shot, but the prize would enable me to follow in my grandmother’s footsteps to Shanghai. So if you like my entry please vote for me. Why not enter yourself and if you do please do add a link on the comments here -  I’d love to read it. You can vote for as many entries as you like (although only once for each entry). Plus everyone who votes or enters gets 15% off an Intrepid Travel adventure.

You can vote for my entry and submit yours here.

My grandparents and father in 1935

China around 1930

Father making new friends on holiday in Japan

My father on holiday in Peitaiho, North China, 1937

Ida teaching tourists to play an ancient traditional game from West Africa is this week’s travel snap. I love the expressions on their faces. Can anyone beat Ida?

I first came across the game of wuri when I saw a family playing it in a back street in Mindelo on São Vicente, one of the islands of Cape Verde off the coast of West Africa. A year later, this time on the island of Sal, some locals challenged me to play wuri with them. Most of the games I apparently won even though I didn’t have clue how!  Before I left the island I bought a wuri board as a souvenir but was somewhat disappointed that I didn’t understand how the game was played.

It wasn’t until a few years later when I was on an excursion in The Gambia, ‘Cooking with Ida’, that I discovered the simple rules of wuri. It was fun to see how the game brought out the competitive streak in all of us and while we waited for the fish benechin to cook we had a mini wuri tournament!

In case anyone else has bought a wuri board whilst on holiday but is uncertain how to play here are the rules, as explained by Ida.

Wuri rules
This is a game for two players. The board is divided into two parts, one side for each player and each side has 6 holes or pots. Before the game starts 4 beans are placed in each hole.

Players take it in turns to pick up the beans from one pot and place a single bean in each of the next pots in an anti-clockwise direction. Each player can only play with beans picked up on their side of the board.

If the last pot they put a bean into then contains 2, 4 or 6 beans (whether it is on the players side or their opponents side) the player wins those beans and puts them to one side.

If there are no beans on your side to play then you miss a go and continue missing a go until there are beans on your side again.

When neither player can play anymore each player counts up the beans they have won. The winner is the person who has collected the most beans.

Following on from my earlier post about World Food Night, featuring a colourful bowl of fish benechin, I wanted to share with you the wonderful morning I spent with Ida Cham-Njai learning how to cook Gambian style!

I joined a small group of tourists on Ida’s cookery course one Monday morning and as soon as we arrive we are shown two clothes’ rails of Gambian traditional outfits. Everyone eagerly picks out their new look. I have always found Gambians love to see visitors embrace their culture in this way so I too select a beautiful bright green ensemble, including a matching head wrap, and get changed.

Few people in The Gambia have access to electricity let alone a fridge so it is common for women to shop at least once a day at the local market. We go to Tanji fish market where all our senses are overloaded with the sights, sounds and smells of the market – women are busy buying and selling, while the men are bringing in the latest catch in their colourfully painted wooden boats. Ida decides at the market what she is going to cook depending on what is available and looking good. Today fish benechin is on the menu and she selects a john dory fish and a red snapper. A small amount of dried salted fish will also be used for extra flavour.

Benechin literaly means one pot and can be cooked with chicken or other meat but fish is probably the most common variation. While the fish sellers scale and gut the fish, we’re off to buy the other ingredients: tomatoes, carrots, spring onions, sweet potatoes, onions, aubergine, cassava, bitter tomatoes and butternut squash are gathered into baskets.

Back in Ida’s courtyard we grab a seat and gather round to prepare the vegetables, many of which are left whole rather than chopped so that they are easy to scoop out and place on top of the finished dish for serving. Others are pounded together in a large wooden bowl.

A smaller bowl and a gourd are used to mash up the chillies and garlic which will be used to make a chilli sauce. They are fried in some oil with a dash of salt and Dijon mustard. This would normally go into the main dish but as some of us may not be used to spicy food it is prepared as a separate sauce.

The vegetables are cooked in a large pot over a charcoal fire and as the pot is stirred a delicious aroma fills the air but we are told it will 2 ½ hours before it is ready.

While we wait Ida teaches us the traditional game of wuri bringing out the competitive streak in all of us and before you know it we have a mini wuri tournament taking place! Sitting in the dappled shade of Ida’s courtyard I feel quite envious of this out-door life style. (I’ll tell you more about wuri and where I first came across it in another post.)

With an hour’s cooking time left to go the fish goes in to the pot.

Half an hour later the fish and whole vegetables are removed and the spring onions which have been pounded up with some garlic are added together with vegetable stock cubes and diced carrot. Pre-steamed rice is stirred in and it’s left to simmer for another 30 minutes.

Our tummies are rumbling as we all sit down on a rug in the courtyard. Dinner is served! As is the tradition we are not given plates but all eat out of a communal bowl, which looks and smells delightful. We have no skill at rolling the food into small balls with our fingers as the locals would so I’m pleased to say we were allowed spoons. I think the verdict is unanimous. Fish benechin is delicious! The chilli sauce, however, was not to everyone tastes but my neighbour on the rug adored it and I couldn’t believe how much of it he ate as it really did pack a serious punch!

More of my photographs from the day are on Flickr  and if you fancy trying some Gambian cookery yourself look out for my up coming post reviewing The Gambian Cookbook.

If you enjoyed reading this post I’d love to hear from you and please do share it on Twitter and Facebook etc.

Ida, originally from The Gambia, studied hotel tourism and catering management in Twickenham in the UK but returned to The Gambia in 1989. Having spent some time working at the popular Senegambia Hotel and then the luxurious Mandina Lodges at Makasutu, she started running cookery courses from her home in Brufut with the desire to preserve and promote her culture.

Once a year, about 70 days after the end of Ramadan, virtually the whole of The Gambia holds a barbecue!

This is the festival of Tobaski (also known as Tabaski or Eid Al Adha) when Muslim families ritually kill a ram in commemoration of Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his only son to God, who at the last minute exchanges Abraham’s son for a ram. It coincides with the end of the annual Hajj (pilgrimage) to Mecca, one of the pillars of Islam and very much encompasses another one of the pillars, the giving of alms. It is a great time to visit The Gambia as the excitement is contagious. On the morning of Tobaski when I was there a few years ago I remember there being a noticeable buzz in the air around my hotel (and I had three marriage proposals from the waiters before I’d even finished breakfast – which is a record even for The Gambia!)

The lead up to Tobaski can be a stressful time for some, as the cost of a sheep can typically be twice a manual worker’s monthly salary. The cost raises steeply as Tobaski approaches. Everyone is expected to wear their finest clothes, preferably new. All compounds (family homes) are thoroughly “spring” cleaned.

Even during breakfast at our hotel, there is an air of excitement. Many hotel staff wear their finest clothes - the ladies in beautifully embroidered dresses.

Every married man or head of the household is expected to buy a sheep (ideally a ram) or other suitable animal such as a cow, goat or even chicken if that’s all they can afford.

Tobaski is a public holiday and one of the major holidays celebrated by Muslims around the world. After open air prayers at the local mosque, families return home, kill their sheep and divide it into three portions, one to be kept aside for the family, one to be given to relatives and friends and one to be given to the needy. Indeed, the idea of sharing is the essence of the feast, bringing unity and harmony among family and neighbours and it is a day to forgive past wrongs.

It is also the custom to offer food to anyone passing by and it would be disrespectful not to eat something, even if only a few mouthfuls. However, it would also be disrespectful to finish all the food as this implies that the host has not prepared enough food.

As the festival approaches everyone starts collecting coins as after the feast excited children visit all their neighbours asking for Salibo (gifts). If you pass down the Kairaba Avenue at this time you’ll find it jam-packed with crowds of children around the ice-cream and cake sellers spending the “gifts” they have collected.

Waitresses join in the dancing to a local band.

In the evening children are allowed to stay up late, while the adults sing, dance and chat while drinking numerous brews of ataya (green tea) and the celebrations can go on for a few days.

..and so may I wish a ‘Happy Tobaski’ to all my Muslim friends and to all Muslims around the world.

To see more photos of The Gambia visit Travel with Kat on Flickr

For information on holidays from the UK visit The Gambia Experience