What’s for dinner?

I am frequently told that Tanzania is not a hungry country and that there is plenty of food available – looking at the countryside so should it be the case, with lots of very good land available.  Like the country as a whole – I have not been hungry.  It seems that there is a great deal of interest in my dinner, so let me give the low-down.

The staple is rice rice rice… and lots of it, but somehow a very nice type that is grown locally and subtly different to what we are used to at home.  To accompany we will have fish from lake Victoria cooked whole with loads of bones or some ‘meat’ which I think is goat in small but adequate quantities.  Together with this we have a soup (actually a sauce) to poor on the rice made of tomatoes or carrots and onions, and maybe an avocado, but probably a banana. 

My favourite meal is rice with some stewed beans in a sauce with a chopped sweet banana on the top.  A combination I can advise you to try at home.  Some other highlights are the chapattis made of wheat flour and the sugar cane you can buy from a cart at the side of the road.

The most difficult meal to stomach is the traditional Ugali - this is a maize flour paste which is very stiff and bland.  You make a small ball by rolling it with your right hand then press a small hole with your finger to let you scoop up a smattering of soup.  It takes me twice as long to finish than everyone else on Ugali night.  I then have to go straight to sleep – my body is so busy trying to digest the food, it closes for all other business.  

Breakfast is usually a couple of bits of dry white bread, although on Sunday, because all the women we out, I was treated to a fry-up.  7 deep fried potatoes – Good morning!