Fine Dining

I love food. I LOVE IT. If my mother is reading this she is shaking her head saying “You can’t love inanimate objects. You can only like food very much.” Umm, I’m going to have to disagree-I looooove it. What I am going to eat, how I am going to cook it and how delicious it will be takes up a disproportionate amount of EshaG’s brain space—and that has been the case wherever I have lived. So I’m pretty surprised it has taken me this long to post something on food. But I will have to say (and maybe others may say it too) Africa is not known for its culinary delights like say Peru, or India or Thailand. And that is probably the reason I haven’t focused on food as much as I usually do---my diet is pretty basic and has contributed, thankfully, to my weight loss. However that doesn’t mean that the African countries I have lived in don’t have their good eats.

I’m sure some of you think this is going to be something out of an Andrew Zimmerman Exotic Foods episode. Yes, “exotic” foods do exist here—but I haven’t had the opportunity to taste most of them. The most exotic things I have eaten were African game meat (gazelle) and dried mopane or caterpillar. Both were very tasty. In Botswana I ate cow intestine (pretty gritty) and chicken feet (with and without toenails). Chicken feet stew is a big part of my diet now, and I really like them---and yes, I’m an expert hand at removing the nails and rough calluses that form on the soles. In Malawi and northern Mozambique I witnessed the consumption of what most of us, and even some Mozambicans scrunch their noses at: like roasted field mice, fried grasshoppers and ants and snails the size of my hand! I regret not trying any of those foods—ESPECIALLY the field mice---who wouldn’t want some roasted mice hair sticking to their upper lip as they crunch down on it!?!? Yum, yum.

What some in the U.S. may think is exotic or weird or gross is part of the dietary staples in other places. In my own Guyanese culture we eat pig feet and ears, chicken gizzards and livers, tripe (cow stomach), and cow tongue—if it is prepared and seasoned correctly it tastes just like any other part of the cow except it is a lot more tender---just do your best to not think about the cow licking boogers out of its nose with that tongue. So I don’t necessarily see these foods as exotic as most countries go through their evolutions of being poor and therefore do not have the luxury of letting any protein go to waste and then getting richer where society begins to select only the choicest parts of the animal to consume. Most nations in Africa still have a majority of the population in poverty, a thin slice of super rich and a slowly growing middle class---so gastronomic fare is basic to meet dietary and budget needs.
Most of Southern Africa has the staple foods of maize and sorghum. I haven’t eaten too many dishes with sorghum--the one time I did it was in Botswana. The dish was sorghum porridge with sour milk with just a few dollops of condensed milk….but…I used most of the tin of Nestle condensed milk on my porridge. I haven’t eaten it again. The one staple you will find from South Africa to Malawi and even parts of west Africa is a plate of ground maize which is cooked by boiling until it forms a thick consistency and looks like mashed potatoes when still hot and steaming---it is eaten with, usually, stews. It is called pap in South Africa, Botswana and other English speaking countries, but most other southern and central African nations call it chima/nsima. In West Africa they make theirs with cassava and it is called fufu—you can also find this cassava chima in Northern parts of Malawi and Mozambique. In my parents country of Guyana we too eat foofoo but it is made of pounded plantain or yams.

I was never a fan of chima and lost a lot of love for it in Malawi as I ate it often during the office communal lunch with ----what many Malawians like very much and eat often---matemba—the worst smelling fish on the planet. It is a small fish the length of an index finger and it is dried out in the sun, it is something like codfish or as folks say in the Caribbean, salt-fish. It is then boiled where its malevolent odor lingers for many torturous minutes, sometimes hours. I often had a slight gag reflex when my domestic worker would cook it for my dogs. I’m not being a jerk. Even Malawians would tell me they didn’t like the cooking process because of the smell. Thereafter it is cooked as a stew with oil, tomato, and salt (sometimes onions). And that’s it. Malawi is a poor country and so innovations in Malawian cuisine in terms of spices and fusion is not high on the list—but I have to say my favorite Malawian dish that would be just about anyone’s comfort food was futali---boiled Irish and sweet potato in a thick, creamy sauce of groundnut (peanut) flour----absolutely heavenly!

In Botswana, meat is king. I cooked a vegetarian meal once for an all Tswana guest list. When I served the meal there was utter silence until someone quietly said “You know we are a meat eating culture, hei?” I told them yes, but an all veggie meal wouldn’t kill them. Needless to say, along with the many Savannah Dry beverages I guzzled during my time in Botswana, I also chowed down on some of the best meat on the planet—its only rival is probably Kobe beef. And as I have mentioned in a previous post—my body paid dearly for it. Botswana’s traditional meat dish, seswaa, is boiled beef with salt, and then it is shredded. And that’s it. Are you detecting a trend? Many things are boiled or fried. I eat a lot of boiled, and sometimes raw, provisions like cassava or here it is called mandioca and in Latin countries it is called yucca. But of course, along with their delicious meat which was usually braiied, or in U.S. lingo cooked on a barbecue pit, with only the slightest need of seasoning (yes, the meat was that naturally tasty!), I had some other favorites. I loved samp--- it is dried corn kernels that have been stamped and chopped until broken and cooked with beans and butter--- flour dumplings (boiled and huge like the size of your fist) with fried chicken and my all time most favorite, oxtail stew, which is a fav amongst Caribbean people as well.

Mozambique, of all the countries I have been in Southern Africa, has been my favorite country for delicious traditional food—like it makes me want to lick the plate but I control myself in fear of shaming my family. But I’m not gonna lie--- I’ll lick my plate and serving spoon while washing the dishes and no one can see me. Mozambican traditional foods are mostly coconut milk and ground nut (peanut) flour based. And part of the deliciousness is the time, and love, you have to put into cooking the dish —as you have to make your own coconut milk and then watch it carefully as it boils so that it does not over boil. Thereafter you add whatever it is you want to cook in it. Here, they add some sort of vegetable, or vegetable leaf like cassava leaves (matapa), pumpkin leaves (matsavo),collard greens(makofu), and the leaves of the string bean plant (nhangane)---you can also throw in a bit of dried shrimp to give all of these dishes an extra punch. On special occasions or in better off households, fried fish, shrimp and chicken can be added to this sauce. All are delicious in their unique ways. They also have a dish called mafura, which is a native African fruit of the mafureira tree. The mafura is plucked from the tree and soaked in tepid water for a few minutes and is then mashed with boiled sweet potato and sugar. I haven’t eaten yet but I inspect our tree every day for a ripened fruit like a begging dog so that I can make B cook it for me. One of my comfort foods here is pumpkin boiled with groundnut flour and sugar---so simple yet deliciously gratifying. As you can see our diet is full of veggies and the leaves of vegetable plants—when we are not cooking them in groundnut flour and coconut milk we are cooking them with oil, tomatoes, garlic, and onions eaten with rice. I am happy about my diet in Maputo as we are super healthy with a mostly veggie and fish/seafood diet. Although B is a pork fan, meat and chicken are more expensive down south as opposed to when we lived in central Mozambique and ate mostly pork and goat meat.

The Portuguese influence is strong here so Mozambican’s seasoning is wonderful when it comes to all sorts of guisados (stews), fried fish, as well as grilled chicken, fish or shrimp. Mozambicans usually use a Portuguese style marinade of lime juice, salt and lots of garlic before grilling but in the case of Chicken Zambeziano, they use a Mozambican style of marinade that consists of grilling chicken with a coconut milk, garlic and lemon juice baste---so finger licking good! The Portuguese have left a tradition of wonderful baked goods. We eat fresh baked Portuguese bread most days for breakfast, with tea or coffee as well as for lunch alongside a salad of tomato, onions, parsley, lime juice/vinegar, and a Benny packet (powered chicken stock and a primary Mozzie seasoning). My favorite appetizers/snacks are rissois (small croquettes): enclosed pastry rolled in breadcrumbs filled with cooked onions, beef, chicken or shrimp then baked or deep fried. Mozambicans have also adopted samosas into their cuisine and usually eat them stuffed inside of a Portuguese baguette. On the sweeter side there are delicious pastries filled with jams and puddings.

There are a growing number of European, Chinese, Middle Eastern and South Asian restaurants to meet the needs of not just those populations that have migrated to African countries but the increasingly globalized taste buds of nationals themselves. I probably have eaten the most authentic Indian and Chinese food I will ever eat outside of those countries right here on the African continent—and my belief in their authenticity was often proved by the menu,for example, mostly being in Chinese with dubious English translations like “Hairy Egg of the Duck”; “Ants Crawling Up Tree” ; “So Nice Sticky Bun.” Some of the best pizza and pasta I’ve eaten has also been in Africa-----actual homemade pizza crusts and pastas with fillings of fresh herbs, meats and tomato sauce.

But definitely, being part of a community of expats has been a great opportunity for me to learn about other cuisines. I’ve eaten French style beef “the way it should be eaten: nicely bloody” and fresh baked fruit tarts served by French acquaintances; delicious Brazilian banana bakes and the best German potato salad I’ve ever eaten by office colleagues; Louie, a former Peace Corps volunteer introduced me to Filipino beef stew with peanut sauce and my girl SarahWim welcomed me to the wonderful world of Sri Lankan curries. I’ve done my best to share Guyanese dishes like peas and rice (cooked in coconut milk), our style of curries, mettagee (coconut milk, salt-fish, provisions), and cooking my stews with a sort of molasses made from the cassava root called cassareep. I’ve also tried sharing with my host friends and family American favorites like fried chicken, mashed potatoes, mac n’cheese and pumpkin pie---all super hits my house: “comida Americana e doce!”

Of course, this post was inspired by a favorite American holiday, Thanksgiving. I cooked a Thanksgiving dinner once as a Peace Corps volunteer and my host family just stared at all the food on the table and asked “Why do you need to eat so much food?” So I casually mentioned the holiday to B a month ago to see if I would get the same reaction and if it would be something we could do. He looked at me for a moment and then responded “We are AF-RI-CANS. We can eat. If you cook a Thanksgiving dinner here, folks will want you to cook a Thanksgiving dinner every month and then they will never leave our house.” So. We’re holding out for the next time we are back States side.
I wish you all love and peace on this special day of grace and gratefulness! I hope you all are enjoying your Thanksgiving!