Getting ready to make a Congolese feast!!!

I basically think about food all the time - I barely finish one meal before I start thinking about my next, so an exploration of Congolese food seems very fitting as part of my "armchair traveling". San Diego has no restaurants featuring food from the Congo (at least none that I could find online - if you know of one, please let me know!), so I'm attempting to make a few dishes on my own. I'm going to make "Liboke ya mbisi" (a fish stew of sorts), "Legumes en Sauce Z'ara" (a veggie stew with peanut butter base....this one scares me a bit....), "Saka Saka" (cassava leaves - kind of like spinach), and of course, FUFU!

I went to an African-Caribbean grocery store today with my friend Kevin (who luckily is always up for an adventure) and I picked up a few specialty items (red palm oil, ground cassava leaves, fufu flour, and banana leaves), and I also checked out what manioc is like in it's original form...I definitely will not be buying any to pound into fufu flour, that sounds like W-A-Y too much work for this girl:)

I'll be cooking tomorrow and will absolutely photo document my culinary adventure!