Sunday, April 02, 2006

 

Chakula cha Tanzania

In the three weeks that I have spent in Tanzania thus far, I have been fortunate to sample a variety of food (chakula), often in rather copious quantities. Thus, as part of Dar es Salaam Diary’s stated mission to inform and entertain, I would like to use this post to take you on a gastronomic tour of my new home.

Every Friday afternoon here at “camp” is set aside for “cultural time,” meant to help us wazungu cope with adjusting to our new home. Last Friday the theme was time management, Tanzanian style. We saw a skit and participated in an in-depth discussion with the main point being that people here do not like to hurry. They will be late for meetings, will notice your being late but never own up to being late themselves, and that there’s nothing much we can do about it, so we should just accept it as a fact of Tanzanian life and deal. Hamna shida. Hakuna matata. (In just two weeks of Swahili lessons, I’ve learned approximately 6 different ways of saying “no worries.”) If you know me at all well, it’s likely that you’ve had the experience of waiting around for me at some point, so this is one cultural barrier that I think I should have no great problem with.

Anyway, the theme for this Friday’s cultural time was food, as a number of us had expressed a desire to learn how to cook traditional Tanzanian dishes. So, at around 2:30, my classmates and I gathered with one of our teachers, mwalimu Rehema, and four of the chefs here who had graciously agreed to show us how to prepare chakula cha Tanzania. Four and a half hours, and at least as many cups of oil later, we had made a feast!

As for what we made… The primary staple of the Tanzanian diet is ugali, a stiff porridge that is something of an acquired taste. (Though it’s actually rather tasteless…) None of us have quite developed the appreciation that ugali perhaps merits, but we were still curious to see how it’s made. Basically, it’s just water and maize flour, but the process of boiling and stirring can get a little tricky (especially when you’re squatting over a small, hot charcoal stove!) Fortunately, no one expects you to eat ugali by itself. Rather, it serves as a base for stews of meat (nyama) or veggies (mboga).

Tanzanian food also includes a number of dishes with Indian roots. We made two of these: chapati and sambusas (samosas). In each case, the main ingredients were flour, water, and a generous amount of oil. The sambusas were filled with a delicious mixture of ground beef, onions, garlic, ginger, and peas. Quite fun to make, though rolling the dough thin enough proved rather difficult.

Next on the menu was spiced chicken (kuku), which was marinated in a mix of ginger, garlic, salt, pepper, and lime juice, and then fried in boiling oil for about 15-20 minutes until brown.

We also made okra (bamia), stewed veggies (mboga), fried green bananas, and beans with coconut milk. And while we were washing up, our patient teachers prepared stewed spinach, carrot salad, and cut up some fresh avacadoes.

As perhaps inferred from the time, this was a rather labor-intensive process. Case in point: the coconut milk. Rather than simply opening a can, we had to shred fresh coconut by hand using a nifty little folding-seat contraption with a spiky bit coming out of one end. You basically straddle it and then use the spiky end to scrape all of the flesh from the inside of a half coconut. Those with a bit more experience make this process look easy and quick, but I would say I averaged about 20 minutes per half coconut, and my back was rather sore afterward… Once you have all the shavings, you put them in warm water, and squeeze, then run through a strainer.

Our hard work was finally rewarded with a delicious (though rather heavy!) meal, pictures of which you can see here.

On Saturday I was still recovering from the feast, but had promised a fellow classmate and one of the MS-TCDC drivers that I would go out for nyama choma (grilled meat) so I got to have another culinary adventure that evening. The nyama in question can be chicken, goat, beef, or mutton (also fish at some establishments). Before sitting down, you go to the counter and select your meat. Sometimes it’s already cooked, I am told, but in our case I got to point to a big hunk of raw beef hanging from a hook in the ceiling to indicate how much I wanted and from what part of the animal. (Not exactly a vegetarian-friendly dining experience…) We then sat down to wait for it to be prepared, with some cold Kilimanjaro to help pass the time. After about 30 minutes, we were presented with a large silver platter of grilled beef chunks and some more fried green bananas. Also hot chili on the side. No silverware, as nyama choma is always eaten with one’s hands. Another round of beer was necessary at this point to counter the spice of the meat. All in all, a thoroughly delicious meal, and definitely a value (About $9 for 6 beers and food for three…)

Dessert does not appear to be such a big thing here (perhaps it’s superfluous by that point?) but one’s sweet tooth can certainly be satisfied by the delicious fruit and fruit juices. In particular, mango, pineapple, guava, passion fruit, and papaya.

Comments:
WOOHOO, I love cultures that are slow and late. I would fit right in. Everything sounds interesting Ruthie, though I would rather have you back here in the states so I can follow you from room to room telling you about my latest gossip. Miss you a lot!

-steph
 
Nice job on getting the links up in your sidebar. Very professional, in a bloggy kind of way. When is language camp over?
 
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