RIce

We eat rice a lot here in Tanzania.  Not quite so much as when we lived in China, but still, a fair amount.  Rice is found in abundance, is inexpensive, and Tanzanians like to eat it, so we always have some on hand.  Tomorrow we're having some Tanzanian friends over, so in my search to find something to cook that they will actually enjoy eating, I am including rice on the menu.  You may think that cooking rice is easy, so I'm lucky to be able to prepare something so simple that people will like.  And while that's not completely untrue, it's a bit more complicated here than in America.

First, I go to the market to buy the rice.  I usually order it by the kilo, and they measure it out on a scale balanced by weights on one side, then they put it into the smallest plastic bag that it will possibly fit in.  I usually end up spilling some on the way home.  After I get home, I get out my rice sifting basket, and I sort through the rice, pulling out little pebbles and the like.  Some of them are quite small, and you might think inconsequential, until you bite down on one on your (hopefully unbroken) tooth.  After I sort through the rice, I go outside and throw my rice up in the air in my basket to separate the rice from the chaff.  This works best on a windy day.  Finally, I rinse the rice several times to cleanse it from the dirt that it is smothered in.

All in all, it only takes an extra 30 minutes or so.  The things in the bowl are the pebbles I've pulled out from about 2 cups of rice.  This was a surprisingly clean selection.