Tema-Ghana, July 11, GNA – At social occasions, baskets filled with local pastries, calabash bowls full of traditional drinks and decorations fashioned from raffia mats, fans and hats are the draws that bring people to local bar stands.
Weekends in Ghana are generally allocated for social events such as funerals, weddings, traditional marriages, birthday celebrations, graduations, and so on; in recent years, such festivities cannot be complete without a Ghanaian touch: local bars.
Ghana News Agency (GNA) The Tema Regional Entertainment Desk excursion over the weekend discovered that such pubs frequently see significant crowds since everyone wants to sample the delicacies on exhibit at the local bars.
For others, it’s a chance to reminisce about their upbringing, while for others, it’s a chance to try new local dishes, drinks, and handpicks.
Nkatie cake, adunlei, ayigbe cookie, agblekaaklo, zowoe or adakwaa, roasted or boiling maize with coconut, atsoomo, poloo, kulikuli, plantain chips, buff loaf, kosua ne meko (egg and pepper) and condensed milk toffee (ayigbe toffee).
Sobolo (bissap), palm wine, asaana, brukina, pito, lamugin, iced kenkey, tamarin, mdaa (corn wine), and tiger nut drink, to name a few.
A local booth at a social event sells kokonte, fufu, omotuo, tuo-zaafi, banku, kenkey, aprapransa, mpotompoto, and akple with the following accompaniments: groundnut, palmnut, green green, ayoyo, and wrewre soup with a sprinkle of ground ginger, okro.
Proteins such as herring, mackerel, or salmon as it is known in Ghana, tilapia, fried fish, bush meat, and chevron complement the cuisine.
Ghana News Agency Tema Regional Entertainment Desk observed that all of this is complemented by female ushers dressed in native fabrics and kente, typically striped from their chest to knee with beads on their wrists, necks, ankles, and calf, complementing with gorgeous ahenema shoes and scarves.
Their male counterparts wear a jomba and top, a cloth across one shoulder, or tie cloths across the neck that fall to hide their bodies.
Miss Rebecca Asheley Armarh, the Chief Executive Officer of Ashbeck’s Décor, revealed to the Ghana News Agency’s Tema Regional Entertainment Desk that local bars were popular due to the traditional touch they offer to events as well as budgetary factors.
According to Miss Armarh, traditional food and drinks are a cheaper alternative to soft and alcoholic drinks, which are pricey due to high taxes.
She said as an event planner she often suggested to clients to opt for the local bars or have a combination with the other one indicating that it does not only offer health benefits, but also provide an opportunity for tourists both local and foreign to taste some delicacies from the different ethnic groupings in Ghana.
On pricing and choice of items to be included, she said some clients contact them with their preference, while they also suggest to others, adding that they price taking account of the items selected, and number of people attending the event, service charge, and transportation.
Naa Dedei Mensah, a local bar patroniser, told the GNA that she preferred local drinks for her event to reduce cost, adding that it provides invitees the opportunity to have variety of drinks, snacks, and food on the same table settings.
Miss Mensah also added that the local drinks were very healthy as they do not contain preservatives like the carbonated drinks and packed ones, indicating that the ingredients used in the local drinks such as dates and ginger have antioxidants that help the body fight against bacteria and other diseases.
She also noted that they were affordable as most of the ingredients were available at the various market therefore easy to access.
Mrs Mary Kyewaa Tetteh-Addo, on her part said organizers opt for the local bar because it is easy to have them in every part of the country especially in the hither lands unlike the bottled ones that have to be carted from far to such places.
Mrs Tetteh-Addo said cost was an integral consideration on either choosing to have a pure local bar, continental or both to satisfy all invitees to the social programme.
