Sikaman Palava: How about another 'Pork Show'

For those who eat pork, the swine flu is bad news. Some have been born into pork-eating families while others acquired the taste wayside. And once acquired, the taste for spicy fried pork becomes an addiction worse than cocaine.

Some people call it 'domedo' but others anglicize it and call it 'domido'. The phonetics does not matter though, so long as the chunks come out properly marinated and spiced. Correct pronunciation has nothing to do with taste and delectability. Big English there!

In some workplaces, there are unofficial pork-eating ­clubs and gangs. These are close-ended groups of pork fans who often move together after close of work and go straight to the domedo woman. It is a daily ritual.

Those in a hurry carry theirs home. There rest settle into the nearest bubra spot where you can see their mandibles crushing soft bones and munching the fried meat, washed down with frothing beer from the barrel. That is the spirit!

Pork is one particular type of meat that unites the brethren. Enemies meet at a pork-show joint and be­come instant friends. How can you still claim to be an adversary when salivating over fried pork? It is not possible.

Incidentally, pork is one particular delicacy which has been derided over the millennia, centuries and de­cades. Since the day Jesus drove possessed pigs into drowning themselves, pigs and pork products have been regarded as a dietary anathema.

Muslims also do not eat pork as a religious practice. In Egypt, however, there are a good number of Coptic Christians who rear pigs and consume pork. The law does not stop them. However, in the event of the swine flu scare, the Egyptian gov­ernment has ordered that 300,000 pigs should be slaughtered.

The Coptic Christians and pig breed­ers are protesting the order, but of course, state order cannot be countermanded.

One interesting revelation about the swine flu is that, there is evidence of what can be termed partial 'cross-infection'. Men are reportedly infecting pigs (as specu­lated in a Canadian case) and men are infecting fellow men as evidenced in Mexico.

Curiously enough, although this is known as swine flu, there is evidence that pigs are not infecting humans and so there is no business killing the pigs. It is hu­mans who are infecting fellow humans because the flu is basically airborne.

It goes to reason that you can eat one tonne of domedo (properly cooked though) and not get swine flu, but when an infected human coughs and you inhale from it, you are goners.

Whatever it is, the microbiological ramifications still need to be properly configured so that mistake is not made in the dissemination of information with respect to the flu.

Now that the flu has come, spirits have been damp­ened. Pork fans see pork stands and turn blind eye. Domedo sellers are counting their losses. Some are in fact mourning, because domedo used to be a fast-moving high-earning trade. Today sales are plum­meting like an asteroid that has strayed from its orbit.

Sometime in the 1980s, the then revolutionary gov­ernment decided to promote pork as "fine meat" and a PORK SHOW was organised at the Trade Fair Centre.

It was well-patronised and Ghanaians had the op­portunity to sample various kinds of pork delicacies; ­pork pepper soup, toasted pork, roasted pork, steamed, fried, grilled, acrobaticized, salted and peppered pork.

I had the opportunity to attend the pork show, and yours truly Kwame Alomele indulged himself quite liberally. Incidentally, my wife doesn't like pork so she doesn't cook it at home. As for me, I am a believer and whenever I get the opportunity to eat pork, I don't let it slip.

I will advocate that after the swine flu has been seen off, another pork show should be organised to rejuve­nate interest in this delicacy. Ghana­ians fear death and why not? Life is sweet!

Sikaman Palava can confidently say, however, that many Ghanaians who say they don't like pork and condemn it openly, enjoy it very much in private. It is typical of the Ghanaian.

Ghanaians do not like sharing their secrets and pas­sions. For example, those who will openly condemn pornography on the newsstands will surprisingly park their cars some distance away and send a small boy: "Buy me that blue and red paper and the other newspa­per - you see the one with a big naked woman on the front page. Hurry up!"

Isn't this typical of the Ghanaian?

Credit: Merari Alomele [Email: [email protected]]
Source: The Spectator