I was excited when we bought a wooden mortar/pestle. Now I have an easy time pounding garlic and parsley, rather than mincing! Sometimes all the vegetables are pounded in the mortar before adding them to a sauce.
People also use the mortar for pounding spices and dried fish. Some housewives actually pound millet, corn, or rice flour using this. Pounding flour sounds exhausting.
The thudding of the pestle in the mortar is frequently heard an hour or so before dinner time. Some days you can hear it in houses all over the neighborhood. When we first arrived in Burkina, Adama, upon hearing the thudding, would often say "Someone's cooking!" I guess he never heard this kind of dinner bell while he was in America!
I seem to think I remember your dad grinding his coffee beans once with a wooden mortar/pestle in your home after a meal we had there.
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