Yesterday we learned to cook Tanzanian style. As an exercise in learning kitchen words and following directions in Swahili, we (our team plus a few other students) cooked lunch for the teachers and the other students. We cooked 14 different Tanzanian dishes, none of which we'd ever cooked before. I was a little worried about our results being the only lunch option for everyone, but it actually turned out ok. Most of the food we cooked is very typical for both town and village meals, though not all are eaten in all parts of the country. Just about every Taznanian meal here includes either rice or ugali (a stiff cornmeal mush), and we cooked both. My favorite thing to do was make coconut milk. You shred coconut, then add warm water and squish. It feels kind of like scraping out the guts of a pumpkin for halloween. In the first picture, Brett is screening the rice for sand and small pebbles. It's not so good when you bite down on one of those. I am cutting something, peppers, perhaps? In the second picture, Brett is making chapatis, a kind of flatbread, deliciously introduced to Africa by the Indians long ago, now a staple, while I smile for the camera. You can see some of our teachers in the background. It was a fun day, a nice change from sitting in the classroom for 5 hours, and we got to practice our speaking a lot in a practical way, which was helpful. And as a bonus, I can now cook dried whole little fish in a tomato sauce for any of you when you come to visit (I'm kidding, please don't let that discourage you from visiting--I promise I won't make it--it's gross). Bon appetite!
Wow, for a second there, I thought you might have finally come to your senses and learned to like seafood. But I guess, it was all just a joke.
ReplyDeleteChristie, I give you major props for enduring all those food smells while pregnant! I can't even handle the smell of peanut butter right now! Hope you haven't been sick... you're in our prayers.
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