One of the questions I was asked most often before I left Australia was, “What kind of food will you be eating over there?” (Interestingly, one of the questions I have been asked most often here is, “What kind of food do you eat in Australia?”)
So, since today is a rest day with nothing new happening, I thought I would take this opportunity to talk about everyone’s favourite subject: food.
The first thing I have to say about food here in Africa is that carbs rule! Following a keto diet here (or even a reasonably low-carb diet) is utterly impossible. Every area has its own staple food (always a carb) but here in Kenya it is ugali, a thick “porridge” made from maize meal. It’s consistency is similar to uncooked biscuit dough, and it is pretty much tasteless. Most east African countries have a similar staple, known by different names. I have been told (by an American missionary) there is also a brown version that tastes better. Ugali is eaten by hand, with chunks broken of and moulded around whatever other food there is.
In addition to ugali there is often rice and/or chapatis (Indian flat bread), and sometimes there are also chips (fries). In Uganda the staple is a dish called matoke, which is made from green bananas and is very nice. Western-style bread is also used, and in some places breakfast is a cup of coffee and half a dozen slices of bread.
The range of vegetables used is limited, which I find quite surprising given the fertility of the land in most places. Mary makes a very yummy cabbage dish, with carrots, capsicum and I think onion – sort of like a cooked coleslaw. The only other cooked vegetable I have encountered is one that tastes a bit like silver beet. Sometimes they also have salad, mostly tomatoes and cucumbers with onion.
Very little meat is used, and mostly it is chicken. This is usually served in a “soup” that is then either poured over rice or soaked up with ugali. Sometimes there is a bean dish, and eggs are sometimes used, mostly for breakfast, though most often breakfast is either bread or pancakes (Mary makes great pancakes).
African adults are not particularly interested in sweets, and desserts are never part of a meal. However fruit is abundant, including the most deliciously sweet pineapple, mangoes, and lots and lots of bananas. In most places there is also a lack of dairy products. Here we have fresh milk, because Adams and Mary have their own cows, but in other countries powdered milk is the norm, probably because of the challenges involved in refrigeration, particularly given the rolling long blackouts that I have talked about in other posts. Cheese is horrendously expensive, and yoghurt is available but seems to be considered mostly as a treat for children.
Indian food has had quite a strong influence in Africa, and a couple of times when we have eaten out I have had truly delicious curries. I’ve also noticed this trip more than on previous ones that there is also a growing Chinese influence on food, probably because China is pouring massive resources into infrastructure in most of the countries, along with large numbers of Chinese workers.
Most Africans don’t use knives and forks. Food is usually eaten with the hands, or when that is impossible with a spoon. At the beginning of each meal, someone will come to each person at the table with a basin and a jug of water (and sometimes soap) for them to wash their hands. This ritual is sometimes repeated at the end of the meal.
African women love to feed their guests. I am trying very hard to get back to my routine of 18:6 intermittent fasting (two meals a day within a maximum six-hour time frame) and one day fasting each week, but everywhere I go the ladies seem to think that I am going to drop dead from starvation if I miss a meal.