A Discursive and Irrelevant Post on Food

The three main staples are rice, beans, and meat, and if we were to eat traditionally at all three meals, we would be eating a variation on these staples each time. And while it may seem this would get bland after awhile, there are many ways to prepare said staples, so there is a pleasant variety.

We usually shop locally, at mini-markets run by our Ugandan neighbors. We can find fresh veggies: onions, green peppers, tomatoes, avocadoes, cabbage, cucumbers, carrots, and more. Locally, we can also find garlic, breads, bananas, and the tastiest pineapples I’ve ever had. (Soon, mangoes will be in season, and that will be neat.) The supermarkets fill in the gaps: meats, potatoes, cereal, canned goods, pasta, etc.

Meat choices are usually beef, chicken, and fish, and less often, goat and lamb. Stews are the most common way to serve meats, and they are always tasty, ranging anywhere from a gulash-type flavor to a curry-infused flavor. There’s only been one dish I’ve had that I didn’t care for, and that was eggplant. But really, who likes eggplant anyway?

Specific items, most of which can be bought at street vendors:
o Chapatti: most like a thick, greasy tortilla, though depending on the vendor, there are some that taste more like a greasy pancake. These are cheap, readily available and they are wonderful when they are hot off the skillet.
o Rolex: an omelet with green peppers, onion, and red tomatoes wrapped in a warm chapatti. Delicious. I swoon over Rolexes.
o Samosa: a chapatti filled with carrots, peppers, onions and ground beef. Also delicious.
o Ugali/posho: starchy cornmeal thing that is sometimes a substitute for rice. Appears and tastes like a mound of very fine rice. Tastes and looks different in Kenya, where it is like a very dense, blandish corn bread.
o Matoke: a plantain that when mashed and cooked resembles and tastes like a sweet potato, except better.
o Charcoal-roasted plantains: tasty.
o Previously mentioned chicken-on-a-stick: very tasty.
o G-nuts: sorta like peanuts. We have g-nut butter which is like runnier peanut butter, g-nut sauce which is a gravy that is great on matoke, and endless cans of plain g-nuts.

Our biggest frustration with the food here is that there are no quick, easy choices. Everything must be prepared in some way, and it all takes a certain amount of planning and preparation. American treats, like Mac & Cheese, are delicacies now. There are other specific foods that I have discovered I miss: Oreos, M&M’s, good potato chips, Johnsonville cheese-filled bratwurst (I suspect I’m the only one who misses these) and Wendy’s Junior Bacon Cheeseburgers (I suspect and hope that everyone misses these). And Chipotle burritos. I would kill for a Chipotle burrito.