Mmmmm....food!

Mmmmm...food!

Alie, Emma and I have all been talking about how good we feel eating the food here. We've been promising each other that we're going to eat better and healthier when we get home...and stop getting too busy to eat properly.

Fresh food...preservative free.

The food that was prepared for all of us at Bushenyi was amazing! It was fresh, harvested very recently and cooked fresh.

Breakfast was coffee or tea, a hard boiled egg (I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed them), bread and fresh fruit...usually pineapple and a banana.

Matoki and kalo were staples at both lunch and dinner. Then there was a mix of cooked or steamed root vegetables, rice and a meat dish. Usually there was a choice: chicken or goat. Sometimes fish was also available. These were always cooked in an amazing sauce...which was called "soup". The sauce over the rice or veggies....mmmm! Usually we also had a bean dish as well as a ground nut sauce at one of the two meals; this was made from freshly ground peanuts (which are one of the crops in the region) and mixed with water. This, on rice or the veggies, is to die for.

All over Uganda, you see these large clusters of green bananas. It took me a while, but I've realized that there are WAY more than 1 kind of banana. In addition to the yellow bananas that we are familiar with in Canada (which we import from Central and South America), there are these tiny ones that have the faint tart apple taste, the ones used for making banana wine, the plantains that can be found in a number of markets. I'm sure there are more.

Matoki is made from the plantains and is a staple of most meals. The plantains are peeled, maybe mashed a little, wrapped in the large banana leaves then steamed for several hours over embers. OK...I have to admit matoki is not my favourite dish. However, it's not so bad with the ground nut sauce!

What I do like are the chapatis and kalo! Several of the teachers attending the workshop gave Emma and I instructions on how to make these. Then, I got the opportunity to pop into the kitchen to observe kalo being made.

Kalo is at ~11 o'clock on the plate.
http://pernille.typepad.com/uganda/2007/01/index.html

Now...there are some things you need to know first.

For starters..."kitchens" in rural Uganda are not the "kitchens" we have in Canada.

You'll notice the large kitchen in the picture to the right has no electronic appliances. It is a separate building...this one was made of the local clay bricks (another story...later). The windows were open, to allow the wood smoke to escape. Food is cooked over an open fire. All of our meals as well as those for another group using this site in Bushenyi were cooked over 1 fire! You'll notice the dried beans, nicely removed from their pods, are waiting to be cooked for the evening meal...in another 9 hours or so. Just above the first (woven) bowl of beans, you can see a log sticking out of a depression in the "counter". This is the "warming overn" where embers and "glowing" logs(analagous to glowing splints you science teachers) are used to slowly steam the matoki and some of the other foods.



I got to watch kalo being made for our last dinner in Bushenyi. First of all, millet was ground down to a flour (I missed this part) and mixed with equal parts of cassava flour. This was all ready in one of the woven bowls. The "cook" was the aunt of one of the young men who helped in the kitchen and in serving food. She boiled water in a large metal pot balanced on the classic 3-stone fireplace.

timinkenya.blogspot.com/.../kenyan-cuisine.html

When the water came to a boil, all of the millet/cassava flour was added at once and mixed with a wooden paddle...which looks like a meter long wooden spoon. For the first minute or so, it didn't look too tough...but THEN...the last 3 minutes or so were serious work! Once the flour mixed in, it formed a fairly stiff dough; the mixing itself started bouncing the pan around. Another of the women used a banana leaf as a potholder to keep the pot on the fire. The heat was reduced by removing one of the larger burning logs. When the kalo was fully mixed and pulled into itself (you bread and biscuit makers out there know what I mean by this) it was pulled out into two of the baskets. An identical basket was used to cover it and keep it warm. This soft, dark-coloured bread was wonderful.

The cook is the woman 2nd from the left. The man to her left is her nephew who introduced me to his aunt and help explain the details of making the kalo.

The chapatis...mmmmm. These are (at a minimum) a mix of wheat flour with some baking soda, and just enough water to make a biscuit dough. This needs to be needed a few times. A small piece is pulled off, then rolled into a circle. This is then cooked in a metal pan with a bit of hot oil. It is spun in the pan (using a finger or two) so it doesn't stick. When done, it is flipped to cook the other side. We usually had chapatis for a morning or afternoon snack. Think about this...we were 26 people and the other group was about the same size. There were enough chapatis for each person ... and some extra....and these are cooked one at a time, over the wood fire. Other things can be added to the chapits...including oil, eggs, milk (instead of water), onions....

There is a whole story about why most women spend their lives in the kitchens cooking the meals as well as taking care of the children. There is a new stove (upesi) that has been invented, here that uses less wood yet burns hotter. This could help women out a lot.

Will try to catch some computer stations at the airports as I travel home. SO much more to share with you!

Meg