I posted a little about food in my daily routine post but I thought I would elaborate.
Since I got here I have been on the Tanzania diet, which consists of a few staples and little variation. It was hard to appreciate the "melting pot" that The United States is until I got here. It's easy to take for granted that on any given day in the states I could eat a nice hearty breakfast with eggs, bacon, hash browns, pancakes and syrup, and a bowl of fresh fruit. For lunch I could drive less than 2 miles and have my choice of Italian, Mexican, or Asian cuisine. And for dinner, if I was feeling adventurous, I could pick up basically any kind of ingredients at Safeway and cook whatever dish I wanted to from wherever in the world I wanted. Or I could combine flavors from all over the world to create a new dish that nobody had ever thought of. But instead, I decided to move to Tanzania for two years.
Here, we eat rice, beans, bony beef and African spinach for lunch and dinner. Sometimes we have potatoes too. And they also really like a dish called ugali which is just water and corn flour cooked together until a play-dough-like consistency is achieved (you usually eat it with your hands and dip it in something). I haven't grown to enjoy it too much, even with the fun of playing with your food. I have been to the market several times now and they have normal ingredients that we have in the states like bell and hot peppers, onions, garlic, rice, beans, oranges, lemons, sugar, flour, salt, carrots, bananas, lentils, pineapples, potatoes, oil, etc. But I haven't found the specialty ingredients (or cheese!!!) that we can find easily back home.
I have been talking with my host family about cooking for them for a few weeks now. Maybe because of gender roles, or maybe just busy schedules, but for whatever reason it's taken a while for me to actually cook for them. Today I finally did. I decided that one of the simpler things to make would be spaghetti. Everything is cooked on a coal stove or over a fire here, so I didn't want to attempt anything too far out there. Along with this, I had heard from a fellow trainee that she had been successful in cooking brownies at her homestay, so I thought I would give that a shot too.
This morning, my kaka and I went to the market to get supplies for everything. In the states there is The Supermarket, with everything you need inside. Here there are many vendors each selling certain things that they choose to stock or grow for sale. We ended up going to seven or eight different stands to find what we needed. For the spaghetti we got: spaghetti noodles, tomatoes, garlic, onions, bell peppers, black pepper, and some meat. We asked everywhere we went but nobody knew where/if we could find oregano, basil, or any spices other than the black pepper we got. For the brownies we got: cocoa powder, flour, sugar, eggs, baking powder and oil.
We got back home and started cooking. My dada (host sister) helped me cook, but let me lead the way. The spaghetti turned out really good considering we used zero Italian spices. Luckily my host family doesn't know what it's supposed to taste like. They loved it. Also, I had them listen to American music while we ate to complete the experience. It's fun to play really explicit music and watch them bob their heads and smile.
After lunch, we started working on the brownies. They were especially fascinated with this one. My dada told me she was a big fan of chocolate so she was watching intently throughout the entire process. She even had me write down instructions for her as I went. The trick for the brownies was that the only cooking tool they have at my house is the small stove. No oven. So we put a pot in another pot and used the big pot as an oven, covering the top with coals.
The brownies were amazing for my family, but not amazing by American standards. Either way, it was nice to have some chocolate. And it's also fun to share things from home with them.
So my first cooking experience in Tanzania was a success. Hopefully I can find some more spices eventually, but for now it's just nice to change up the diet a little. I'm sure it'll be back to rice and beans tonight.
I tried to post a picture of the brownies but the upload wasn't working. Maybe I'll post it later.
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