Last evening, less than an hour after posting a story about Joloff Rice, I wound my way slowly home on the 3-mile stretch of dirt road, snow covered and windblown, that connects us to asphalt.

Parked directly in front of our garage was a huge semi—some 50 feet long—with its bright tail lights glowing red, not unlike the color of the palm oil I’d just written about. The too weightless truck, empty of cargo, had begun to slide precariously backward at the edge of the road where our property slopes downward, just near our hollowed-out, 100-year-old apple tree. Our road was not near to his destination; his GPS had identified impassable, narrow dirt roads as the most direct route.

Our neighbor Phil, who lives just up the hill, had already been at it for an hour, helping the driver, a Guinean, put chains on the useless tires. The chains produced no more traction than before, so a road crew—tow truck and sand truck—were called.

When I learned that the driver, Thierno (pronounced “Charno”), was originally from West Africa, I trudged as quickly as I could through the snow to our house, scooped up a portion of Joloff Rice, and excitedly ferried it over to Phil and Sam’s, where Thierno and Phil were taking a break from the cold while waiting for help.

Sam and I both said this was the most exciting thing to happen around here in years. In our very un-international rural setting, I felt like I was in a fifties movie: There was the excitement of a “stranger in town,” no less a stranger from a land far away, the food of which happens to be what DCCC members have been cooking for the last several weeks. What are the chances? Someone who actually knows the foreign food I’ve been making and can tell me if it tastes good, tastes as it should?

Thierno said the Joloff Rice was good, and it was our entrée to talking about African food. From him I learned that Joloff Rice is not always made in one pot, as I had concluded after doing what I thought was exhaustive research on the web and referencing an additional African cookbook, in addition to the club’s pick: 70 Traditional African Recipes. The components of the dish, Thierno said, are sometimes served separately, as in Rosamund Grant’s recipe: the chicken, the rice, and a sauce,

We made plans to spend a day cooking African food, should he find his way to Vermont again. With a good friend in Brattleboro, a town two hours south of us, pestering him to come for a visit, it’s not out of the question.

The tow truck pulling ThiernoThierno safely at his destination after midnight

Thierno safely at his destination after midnight