Cheap, delicious African food

                Today I had my first taste of Senegalese food (traditional African) for lunch. The meal consisted of chicken, rice, fried plantains, salad, and of course a San Miguel (the main beer here, it’s a Spanish beer). This is pretty typical restaurant food here in Malabo. All together it cost 2000 CFA (pronounced say-fah), which is the currency here, a French franc. That’s the equivalent of $4, the beer being $1, and it was a lot of food. It’s a place where the locals go to eat. Definitely going back there, it was delicious and cheap! They put ketchup and mayo on everything, it’s pretty funny – there were two little dollops of it on the chicken. It’s pretty good though.
                The restaurants generally have kind of poor service. As an example, I ordered meat but they gave me chicken. Meals also sometimes take a really long time to receive – we had lunch at the Spanish cultural center the other day after Sipopo and it took two hours when we all only ordered simple sandwiches. That’s just the way it is here, but with places like this Senegalese restaurant you’re not supposed to tip at all. At nicer places such as the Spanish and French cultural centers or other nicer, indoor restaurants (most restaurants are almost fully outside) you are supposed to tip 10%. Politeness is also not a huge thing here; they don't really expect you to say "gracias" after receiving your meal or "por favor" when ordering it, and they are not exceptionally friendly. They are not rude either, it's just a cultural difference. They are pretty straightforward people. So the whole restaurant experience is another intriguing contrast between life in the US and EG.