This week I suddenly realized I have never posted
anything in this blog about Ugandan food. What kind of web 3.0 American am I? Actually, I’m the non-foodie, bad-cook kind. But
for today I’m joining the more culinarily (not a word, sorry) gifted or
restaurant-savvy crowd and doing the very American thing of posting food
photos.
The food in this entry will be of two sorts: 1) restaurant food, and 2) home food.
Restaurant food
The food in this entry will be of two sorts: 1) restaurant food, and 2) home food.
Restaurant food
UCU has four canteens. Yesterday I went to the “Touch of Class” Canteen, which is distinguished by its offering not only of Ugandan-style eats like rice, mashed plantains (matoke), sweet potatoes, and various sauces to ladle over them, but also Western-style fare like chicken and chips.
Admittedly one feels a little hesitant to enter a place that touts its quality
so blatantly (I never did go to the “Nairobi High Class Butcher” when we lived
in Kenya), but Touch of Class turns out to be pretty good.
So Liz, our downstairs MA-in-psychology-candidate
neighbor, and I ordered our food and when it arrived I photographed it. The
decision to do this, may I just say, placed me in the embarrassing position of
being viewed by my fellow diners as the most gawking sort of tourist. As I
stood up to get a good angle on my food I could hear a couple of students walk
by expressing astonishment. “What in the world is that crazy white lady doing
taking pictures of her lunch?” OK I didn’t actually hear them say it but it was
definitely in their tone of voice. I felt marked as a social outcast, but that
is the cost of joining the strange, dark world of “food porn” I guess.
Liz ordered matoke, rice, greens, and g-nuts. She also
wanted the “Stony” ginger beer bottle to be in the photo. It’s powerful stuff
that my oldest son Wesley loves. Apparently it reminds some people of "Buffalo Rock" ginger ale in Birmingham, Alabama. I ordered chapatti (cut into strips for dipping) and
g-nuts, with passion juice. G-nuts are small peanuts (ground nuts) roasted then
combined with garlic and onion into a soup. The purplish brown color is because
of the red hulls. It is delicious. And if you've never had fresh passion juice, well, you've never had fresh passion juice.
But here is the most wonderful part of the story. The two
meals plus drinks cost a total of $3. Not $3 each, but $3 total. I don’t know
why I even bother to cook anymore.
Home food
And now, speaking of economical dining, a story about food that came to us absolutely free. This morning we woke up, flipped on the overhead light, and found ourselves almost immediately invaded by legions of termites. They came under our door and flew about the living room before shedding their wings and crawling about strangely naked on the floor. They also clustered around Jim's computer screen and interfered with his reading of Ohio State wrestling news. We used to see termites at the beginning of the rainy season in Kenya, and with the rains having started here about 4 days ago we shouldn't have been surprised. We swatted them, stomped on them, and finally swept them up into a pile (see photo below) and threw them away.
Of course, as you have guessed, many people around here would have eaten them. In the villages, where electric lights like ours are rare, termites may be purposefully lured out on the appropriate night after the rains start by burning banana leaves, which are placed next to some sort of pit to trap them. Once they are gathered, I understand that to cook them you pull of the wings and fry the bodies in oil with a bit of onion. They are probably a great source of protein.
After our own harvest we headed out into the darkness to take our children to school in Kampala. You could see the termites swarming around every spotlight and below the brightly lit canopies over the pumps at 24-hour gas stations. It was pretty in a misty kind of way.
And now, speaking of economical dining, a story about food that came to us absolutely free. This morning we woke up, flipped on the overhead light, and found ourselves almost immediately invaded by legions of termites. They came under our door and flew about the living room before shedding their wings and crawling about strangely naked on the floor. They also clustered around Jim's computer screen and interfered with his reading of Ohio State wrestling news. We used to see termites at the beginning of the rainy season in Kenya, and with the rains having started here about 4 days ago we shouldn't have been surprised. We swatted them, stomped on them, and finally swept them up into a pile (see photo below) and threw them away.
Of course, as you have guessed, many people around here would have eaten them. In the villages, where electric lights like ours are rare, termites may be purposefully lured out on the appropriate night after the rains start by burning banana leaves, which are placed next to some sort of pit to trap them. Once they are gathered, I understand that to cook them you pull of the wings and fry the bodies in oil with a bit of onion. They are probably a great source of protein.
After our own harvest we headed out into the darkness to take our children to school in Kampala. You could see the termites swarming around every spotlight and below the brightly lit canopies over the pumps at 24-hour gas stations. It was pretty in a misty kind of way.
Love the cafeteria story. The image of people staring while you take food pics is hilarious. The termite story is astounding. I love reading your posts! What an adventure.
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