I realize I’ve never formally introduced you to the food here. So here is a pic of a typical lunchtime meal. It is ‘mix’ with sauce. Here the sauce is beans. You can also get gnut (peanut), meat, or fish. The mix usually consists of various starches, including matooke (made from plantain steamed in banana leaves, the staple food here), posho (made from maize flour), and rice.
The other pic you see was taken near Masaka market, and it shows matooke as it looks fresh off the tree. You see people carting it all over the place on heavily-laden bicycles or trucks. People here call matooke ‘food’, and don’t feel as if they’ve really eaten unless the meal includes matooke. They always seem very surprised to hear we don’t have it back home!
In terms of my usual meal schedule, here’s what a typical day might look like:
* Breakfast: A mug of tea, a mug of millet porridge, a butter sandwich, a boiled egg, and if my host mom forces me, a banana or plate of greens or beans.
Morning tea: Tea (as always with whole milk and like 4 teaspoons of sugar!) and a snack (such as samosa, banana pancake, or fried cassava)
* Lunch: Rice and beans. I never choose to take matooke at lunch if I can avoid it. Once per day is enough!
* Afternoon tea: Tea with either another butter sandwich or a chapatti (like a tortilla)
* Just wanted to interject and say that I'm starting to feel like a Hobbit here...must take a break from fighting evil for elevensies...
* Dinner: matooke, rice, or potatoes with greens, fresh avocado, and some kind of sauce, and my favorite- passion juice (made fresh from half orange/half passion fruit, water, and lots of sugar!)
Although I sometimes just crave a good slice of pizza, I can’t complain overall. Everything is boiled to within an inch of its life, which kills germs, and it’s about as fresh as you can get (as in, beans just out of the pod and bananas just off the tree!)
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1 comment:
Matooke is just plantains? Funny that it's such a common part of a meal in Latin America, too. Mmmm, matooke.
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