I was happy to notice a recent post about Ghanaian cooking on the World On a Plate blog. I also heard Anthony Bourdain's May interview on NPR (RE his latest book Nasty Bits), and cheered when I heard him say how terrific Ghana's food is. And I'm anxiously awaiting chef Samuelsson's book (The Soul of a New Cuisine: A Discovery of the Foods and Flavors of Africa), too. Africa's culinary time is here!

I recently had an e-mail from a woman asking WHERE in the U.S. she could take a Ghanaian pastry course. She has taken courses in pastry-making at the ICE (Institute for Culinary Education) in NYC, as well as Latin pastry-making classes, but was looking for anywhere or anyone in the U.S., public or private, teaching Ghanaian-style sweet and savory pastries (breads, coconut and other cakes, meat pies, chips, etc.). The time to introduce sub-Saharan African cuisine into contemporary culinary curricula is now: let's learn about fufu and palmnut soup, palaver sauce, plantain pancakes, injera and wats and alechas, new teas, new ways to serve coffee, peri peri shrimp, suya, palm butter, cassava and corn dishes steamed in leaves, meat and fish grilled with chilis, etc., etc., etc.