For those of you who know me well, you know I really enjoy
trying different kinds of food. So it may come as no surprise that I am LOVING
the food here!! For some of it, I’m not
sure if it’s Kenyan, or Ugandan, or just East African in general, but I have
liked most everything I’ve tried since I got here. From the first night that I arrived, when one
of our Kenyan colleagues was making homemade chapatti, to having a “Rolex” this
morning, the food has just been delicious!
I’m also trying to learn how to make some of these things so that I can
cook for friends and family when I get back. :)
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| Chapatti |
The style of local cooking, not surprisingly, seems to
leverage a lot of locally available staples (rice & corn meal), locally
grown greens, and legumes (beans, lentils, etc.). Many of the ingredients are cheap and filling,
since a great number of people who live in the areas we work in are poor and eat
just 1-2 meals a day, often with meat only once or twice a week, at most.
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| Some local greens in garden by our office |
Local Yams – These are so good! We got these from the local market and my
Ugandan roommate cooked them for me. They are white with purple coloring and have a smooth buttery flavor.
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| Yams |
Sukuma wiki (a local kale) – cooked with, oil (we use
Sunflower oil here), tomatoes, and red onions. Delicious and nutritious!
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| Sukuma wiki |
Beans – soaked overnight and cooked with oil, tomatoes and
red onions (you may notice a trend here) and a local seasoning, Royco mchuzi
mix (which I think actually goes into almost everything we eat)
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| Beans, ugali, yams & cabbage salad |
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| The magic seasoning |
Ugali/Posho – made from corn meal and water (pictured above). The style we’ve been having is thicker (more
meal less water) and is thus Kenyan Ugali; whereas if more water was used and
it was made a bit softer (less firm), it would be considered Ugandan Posho. By itself, Ugali tastes a little bland, but
when used like rice and mixed with the beans or lentils, it’s quite tasty. In addition, the same corn meal when mixed
with a lot more water, plus milk and sugar, is made into a porridge, which is
also quite tasty. :)
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| Main ingredient for ugali, posho & porridge |
Pilau – beef made with rice, onions, tomatoes and a special
Pilau masala seasoning. This is one of
my roommate’s favorite dishes. It was
quite good, and has a neat unique flavor, but since I’m not big into beef, it’s
not quite at the top of my list.
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| Pilau |
Bhajia – I had these at a local restaurant. They are potatoes dipped in some kind of
special spiced flour and then fried. Delicious!
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| Bhajia |
Cabbage salad – We have cabbage salad with almost every meal,
and usually it consists of cabbage, tomatoes, and red onions, and at times,
carrots. My roommates and I have a
running joke about the proper way to prepare the cabbage. My Ugandan roommate was not at all impressed with
my cabbage chopping abilities, as they prefer it thinly sliced (as shown above). I have since been banned
from making the salad, and/or am refusing because of the daily ribbing.
Rolex – And last, but certainly not least, is the rolex,
which I had heard about since I got here and just tried today. It’s eggs mixed with onion, tomato and
cabbage rolled up into a chapatti. My
roommate actually went out this morning to pick up the chapatti and made this
for us. Rolexes are apparently very
common in Uganda and can be purchased from street vendors there. It was really good, and really filling!
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| Rolex, as served |
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| Rolex with a view of egg mixture inside |
I think that’s about it for now. I’ve also had fish and
chips, lots of rice, pizza (though it didn’t taste very much like pizza), and
then we’ve made “American food” pasta for our roommate. It’s fun to be cooking again, to learn
about new foods, and to have these different cultural experiences.
I can't wait to have you cook these foods for us at Christmas! I can help with cabbage slicing :)
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