The National Dish of Burkinabe. . . Tô

I have been hearing about Tô for about two months, the stories, the fear and excitement over the national dish of Burkina. Some Burkinabe eat Tô everyday, for every meal. What is Tô? Tô is pulverized millet flour added to boiled water. It is tasteless and has no nutritional value (one of the main reasons why malnutrition is such a problem, it is all they eat/can afford) to it and is often combined with a green sauce made of baobab leaves. Yum Yum. On December 2^nd my host dad told me that would finally be having Tô for dinner. Apprehension seized me because I have heard stories from my friends. I asked Mariam my tante, and the wonderful cook that makes all my meals if I could watch her make the Tô. She was completely fine with that and would yell out “Yasamine venir” anytime she would add a new ingredient to the dish. For all curious what Tô is here is How Mariam makes Tô:

Dec. 2, 2008: Mariam first adds the millet powder to boiling water. Millet is actually nutritious when it is in grain form but the Burkinabe pulverize it to death getting ride of any nutritional value of the grain. This is one reason why malnutrition is a major problem in Burkina Faso and many other sub-Saharan African countries.

The millet creates a rue or pasty goodness after Mariam stirs and stirs.

Mariam created a gumbo (okra) sauce to accompany my Tô.

Mariam is “spicing” up my Tô by adding some maize (corn) flour. Delightful

Dodo is enjoying the cooking process. Those are tamerins laying out on the ground drying, ohh the sanitation.

Mariam stirs. . . .

. . .and stirs to combine all of the ingredients.

After about 10-15 minutes, Mariam spoons out the hot Tô into my serving bowl. Doesn’t it look light and fluffy, like clouds. It sits like this until the sauce is ready. I take a bucket bath, which is customary to do in Burkina Faso before you eat.

I always eat alone in my room and I insisted that my first taste of Tô would be done by using my hands as a traditional Burkinabe women. Adissa, my sister, took this photo and yelled at me the entire time as I ate with my hands (I made sure my hands were extra clean).

The meal of Tô and a gumbo sauce with some peanuts and even meat. I really am spoiled to have Mariam as my cook!!

It actually was not that bad. The Tô really has NO FLAVOR at all.

I want to show you how HARD Tô actually is. I am pressing down very hard and the Tô barely moves an inch. Tô can last a couple days and Burkinabe continue to eat it and often all day old Tô, Tô Mort (i.e. dead Tô).

The sauce is a gak like consistency. Think of Ridley Scott’s Alien movies and the slime is what the gumbo sauce looked/felt like.

I survived Tô, and I doubt I will cook it for myself when I get to site. I also highly doubt it would be popular in the United States. I could try introducing it though when I come back to the states!.! !. .