Typically multiple men sit around a common bowl of food and eat with their right hand. Then the remaining food is past to the women, who eat together. Last, the children eat what is left. American & European women eat with the men. In certain settings, I am offered a fork or spoon to eat with.
Why do people eat millet or rice as their staple day in and day out? Because that is what they can afford.
For breakfast, there is some more variety. Many people have a piece of white bread (du pain) and a very sweet coffee drink with plenty of milk powder added. Then there are little non-sweet pancake type patties grilled on a pan over a fire. My favorite is peanut butter (ground fresh from the many peanuts grown in Mali) with bananas (also picked off the tree) on bread. Occasionally for breakfast, I will go to a roadside vendor and buy fried eggs on bread. One can also pick mangoes off of trees.
Some Peace Corps volunteers have gardens, some cook for themselves. I do not like to cook. So I eat some lunches and dinners at friends houses. For other meals I buy food along the road from vendors who prepare food in the open air. Everyday, they bring their charcoal/wood stoves, pots, pans, and chairs and setup their stand to sell food from. What is called restaurants in Markala are basically road side stands with straw or tin roofs overhead. In bigger cities, like Ségou and Bamako, there are restaurants almost like the USA. There is nothing like Dennys or MacDonalds here.
Oh yes, while eating in public, I always have guests for my meals. They are called 'garibous'. Garibous are young boys who have been abandoned by their parents, and left to fend for themselves or with the help of a religious elder. They normally roam the streets with small plastic containers hanging off their arms. When I sit down to eat, they stand a couple of feet away, and watch me. And watch me. And watch me. Remember having a dog beg at the table? Similar concept, very different experience when the beggar is a child.
Risks of eating here? Stones for one. Much of the grains has stones and pebbles in it. If you are not very careful while chewing, you can break a tooth. Most Maliens' teeth are VERY bad. Traditionally they brush their teeth with sticks that have a tendency to fray at the end. Now, some families are beginning to use tooth brushes. Also, bone chips can be found in the stew. Butchers hack the carcasses with big knives, not saws. This leaves bone chips embedded in the meat, which can also break a tooth.
Salad and fruit cannot be eaten unless properly cleaned. There is the almost certainty of micro - organisms and disease. Most everything needs to be washed in a chlorine solution. I eat precious little salad in Mali. I miss it very much.
Food handling is important also. The people who prepare and serve the food need to be aware of basic guidelines, like washing hands with soap and keeping food covered from the thousands of flies. (Flies carry many diseases, and regularly visit the nyegen/outhouse and effluent in the street.) Almost never does a typical Malien food establishment follow all of the Peace Corps health guidelines.
The bird flue has not hit Mali yet that we know, but it is in some adjoning African countries.
The Market (Marché) is where many people go to shop for food and other items. Meat, vegetables, grains, shoes, pots/pans, live animals like sheep, peanuts, bananas, dried fish, and vast piles of used clothing from western countries are all available in the market. It is normally held once per week, and MANY people come in from adjoining villages to buy and sell. The Market is very busy, making our malls look tame and spacious.
Click here for pictures of meals and the Market.