For All the Foodies Out There

Like nearly every other culture, food is very important in Uganda. The days here revolve around sunlight and meals, and everything else works around that schedule. Like home, there are 3 mealtimes, however  breakfast is much earlier (around 6 am) and dinner is much later (between 8-10 pm). The food we eat is determined by what is available locally and what is in season. Since we are on the equator the products grown are very consistent throughout the year. Uganda’s main foods grown are bananas, coffee, wheat, avocado, tomatoes, potatoes, greens, onions, mangoes, ground nuts, rice, passion fruit, popo (a giant fruit that has a strange taste), watermelon, sweet potatoes, jackfruit (kind of slimy fruit), tea, sugar cane and pumpkin. As you can see there is quite a variety of food and everything we eat is locally grown.

Prepared matoke

Bananas are the most prevalent ingredient in food and there are many ways to prepare it in dishes. In the unripe form bananas are called matoke and they are mashed up and cooked (like mash potatoes). Ugandans are obsessed with matoke. They literally eat a mound of it every meal and it is always their favorite food (to me it tastes like bland heavy starch with a strange texture). The matoke is usually accompanied by 2 other starches: rice, spaghetti, bread or potatoes.  This part of the meal is the “food” and the other parts that have flavor are considered “sauce” (beans, veggies, spices etc). Lastly the meat if available (usually chicken, but sometimes beef or goat) is killed just before eating.

Last weekend my mom took me to my JaJa’s house (grandma: pronounced juh juh) to visit with the extended family while she ran errands for her mother. JaJa is the definition of a matriarch and everyone in the neighborhood treats her with great respect. Most of her family is not biological family, but extended family of her “children” that she has taken care of at some point, so they now look after her and work for her. She is like the boss that orders everyone around and supervises (the family has a cake business and sells chickens on the side). JaJa does not speak very good English, but was very kind and we spent hours learning from each other while we sat under a tree drinking tea. As we were sitting there a chicken walked by and I admired it. A few hours later while we were having lunch, I complimented the food and she proceeded to tell me that the chicken I was eating was the chicken I had admired. I was slightly freaked out, but she was so proud of it that I quickly came to terms with it.

Cakes my family made. (All of it is cake!)

The reason they day revolves so much around food is because of the time it takes to prepare a meal. So much effort is placed into each meal, that it is considered very rude if you do not finish your plate. The only problem with this is that the portions are HUGE, like a giant pile of food on your plate and if you are served the food, you must eat it. The meals consist of so much starch and very little meat or veggies, so I’ve had to learn to ask for katano (Luganda for less) rice and matoke with my meal. Even the “salad” here is really coleslaw, and vegetables are not considered food but instead are “vitamins”.  “Food” is that which fills you up and sustains you; vitamins, sauce and meat are additions to the food. Ugandans generally eat so much because many have very labor-demanding jobs which burn a lot of calories, so by the time you get to the meal you are very hungry. Additionally, bigger is better here and people want you to look “fat” to signify that you are well fed. Fruit is generally a snack, dessert or made into juice. The fruit tastes so much sweeter and fresher here, it’s by far one of my favorite things to eat.

This is what the normal meal looks like here

People never eat on the go here and meals are not rushed. Because meals are respected, people must sit down and take their time eating, sometimes meaning that your meal can take hours. If you get street food such as kabobs or chapati (like a pita) you must sit at a table before you can eat it.
The biggest thing I miss from home is the amount of vegetables I can have in a day. Because of this, my friends and I usually will go to the market and by avocados, tomatoes and other veggies to make salad for lunch every day. The food is so fresh, and almost nothing is processed here. Even the wine is Ugandan (although it is passion fruit wine, not grapes), and the beers are all from Eastern Africa.

The most important detail that I forgot to mention is that I can eat gluten here! The way they process gluten is different here and doesn’t make me sick so I am able to eat bread, and anything with flour as long as it is from Uganda. I never used to understand the locavore craze, but now that I am eating only foods that are grown locally I must say that the quality of food is much better and cheaper! 

It's not unusual to see a slab of meat lying around in the living room. (this is a cow thigh)