Milk & Other Dairy Products

So you might guess that as hot as it is here in Côte d’Ivoire there are not many milk products. If you guessed that, you would be kind of right. Right in the sense that you will not see a fresh cold gallon of milk at the supermarket.* It is also difficult to find good, fresh cheeses** and cold cuts. When I first moved to Daloa (the city in which I live), I wanted to buy some cold-cuts for when I work out in the villages. I could not find cold-cuts anywhere but finally lucked up on a supermarket that sold sliced turkey. The next day when I got ready to eat the turkey, I realized it was spoiled! The point is that here, conservation of things that must be left cold is a challenge due to the heat. So getting back to that gallon of fresh cold milk – I have not had a glass of milk since I left the United States!

While milk is used, the most popular form of milk here is powdered milk. And while I don’t drink powdered milk straight, I do use it in my coffee and for making mashed potatoes.

Yogurt, on the other hand, is easier to find. While its consistency is very different from what we have in the States, they definitely have Yoplait yogurt available in the grocery stores in my city, in various flavors too. What I imagine, however, is that this yogurt is made with powdered milk. Anyway, it’s pretty good and I purchase it from time to time.


*However, in Abidjan, the capital city of the country, you can basically find any and everything. When I first got to CI, I had a good ham sandwich made with seemingly fresh cold cut meat that I’d found in a huge supermarket in Abidjan.
**I have seen imported French cheese such as camembert here in Daloa but one must wonder about the quality of the product especially since there are challenges with keeping items cool and fresh. For example, over the past few months, there have been numerous power outages. There is however a type of cheese that can be easily found here and it does not need to be refrigerated. I think it’s the same as the Laughing Cow brand of cheese that we find in the United States. I do not eat it, as I do not eat cheese of this sort in the US either.