The Food of Uganda!

Guess what? I’ve been meaning to do this post for a while but have been putting it off…now that I’m fixing to leave in just a few days, I reckon I better get it written….or it may never happen!

So here goes: a post about the typical Ugandan food I have experienced.

The Institute kitchen staff has done a marvelous job of feeding us, especially considering that they’re trying to provide for people from at least two primary cultures…and actually even more than that because of the several cultures represented within Uganda!

Breakfast

Some things that would be typical in America too – oatmeal, bread/toast (the latter when the power’s on!), scrambled or hard-boiled eggs, bananas (see below). Occasional treats are “baked oatmeal” (more like an oatmeal bread) and banana bread.

We also sometimes have sausages (that don’t taste like American sausages) or fried salami. But there are also a couple things that are not American: rice porridge and (a couple times) millet porridge, and a high importance of having tea made from hot milk. The kids who live here eat maize porridge for breakfast, and it’s just made of the same type of cornmeal that is used in posho (see below).

Lunch

Our meals—especially lunches—have followed a pretty regular menu, so that’s the easiest way for me to think of everything I’ve had. Every lunch/dinner also includes some sort of vegetable (usually cooked or raw cabbage, avocados/guacamole, or sometimes eggplant) and a fruit (pineapple, mango, papaya, watermelon, or some combination of the above. Passion fruit once or twice, I think).

The soup/sauce is always served over the carbohydrate. And all the food is hot, which combined with the warm temperatures can sometimes make simply eating a meal cause one to sweat!

Monday lunch: Steamed rice, posho, beans.

Tuesday lunch: Sweet potatoes/yams and lentil soup. (Second favorite J)

Wednesday lunch: Steamed rice, matoke, g-nut sauce, vegetable soup with beef.

Thursday lunch: Chapatis, rice/boiled Irish, beans. (Personal favorite!)

Friday lunch: Steamed rice/posho/spaghetti (two of the three), lentil soup.

So…a lot of those are probably new foods that you’re scratching your head at…….here’s my attempt at an explanation of each J

Posho is a staple here (the kids who live at Kasana eat posho and beans at both lunch and dinner every day). It is made from ground maize (like cornmeal—but white instead of yellow like sweet corn), mixed with water, and cooked so that it’s a very stiff—well, I was going to say mush…but the consistency is not anything like mush. There’s not really anything good to compare it to….  {A month later and I finally figured it out: the closest thing here to posho is really thick grits.}

The sweet potatoes and yams here are not much like American sweet potatoes. Sweet potatoes here are white, though the shape is longer and skinnier rather than round. I enjoy the taste and texture of those ones. The yams (if I have this right) are white with purple streaks. They are a much starchier texture and don’t have a whole lot of taste. I don’t prefer those ones…

All of the soups listed above (minus the g-nut one) include carrots/bell papers/onion and sometimes tomatoes, zucchini or eggplant.

Matooke is a special kind of bananas (most like plantains) boiled in a very particular way, then mashed, I assume…because it kind of has the consistency of mashed potatoes—though more sticky.

Here’s a good place to briefly mention the types of bananas here. They have at least four types, possibly more! And I don’t remember all the local names for them, so I apologize. My favorite are the small sweet bananas that we usually have at breakfast (maybe called finger bananas or something like that in the States?). Then there are what I consider “regular bananas” – but I’ve been told they’re still different than typical American bananas. Matooke bananas are the third. The fourth type is a pink-ish banana that they’ve served us a couple times at lunch. Steamed in the peel, they are sweet & pretty yummy in small quantities!

G-nut sauce is kind of made from peanut butter (peanuts here are referred to as g-nuts). But it’s somehow watered down so that it’s a runny, protein-packed sauce. Served over the matooke, but it’s good over rice too.

Early on they also served us yummy pumpkin squash as one of the staples on a weekly basis. I really liked it….but evidently others didn’t like it enough because they quit serving it L

Chapatis are basically a really super thick flour tortilla, including shredded carrot and onion mixed in the dough. More like a half-way point between tortillas and flatbread, if that makes sense. So whenever we have them it’s almost like a Mexican meal!

Boiled Irish is simply boiled potatoes. But what are considered “regular” potatoes in America are called Irish here!

The lentil soup is yummy. It reminds me of my mom’s split pea soup, except for it’s made with orange lentils rather than green and is less runny.

Dinner

The evening/weekend meals can sometimes tend to be a bit more Western. We still nearly always have a carb and some sort of sauce to go over it, as well as the vegetables/fruits listed above. Some of the regulars are spaghetti and ground beef/tomato sauce, rice and chicken soup (big pieces of boiled chicken + veggies & broth), fried rice (with lots of yummy veggies and chicken or scrambled eggs), and a repeat of the Thursday lunch (YAY!).

We’ve also had things like pasta salad, and a couple of times have been treated to an {iceberg} lettuce side salad! I’m always pretty excited about the latter – I’ve really missed a good robust green salad here. It’s going to be my first meal when I get back to the States…that and ice cream! ;)

Miscellaneous

The sweet things are pretty much restricted to breakfast (we go through a jar of Nutella in a day or maybe two, and people add sugar to both porridge and tea!), fruit, and birthday cakes….so no regular dessert here! Thus I have gotten into the habit of maintaining a chocolate stash to occasionally satisfy my sweet tooth. Oh, and the ice cream here tends to be more like either frozen cool whip (fake dairy) or slushy/snow cone-ish (more like sherbet rather than being creamy).

Thankfully they have soda (soft drinks) here. The first week I was really craving one, even though I’m not a habitual drinker of them back home. I think that was probably my sweet tooth talking, and my desire to have something cold in the heat! So yeah – Coke, Pepsi, Mt. Dew, and Fanta are all available here. A unique one is “Krest” that is basically a fizzy lemonade that’s bitter instead of sweet. They also have this amazing one called “Stoney” (think a really strong ginger ale). Hmm…I’ll have to try to smuggle one or two home so my family can taste it!

I haven’t had traditional snacks here as much….but I do know a few. Mendazis (no idea if I spelled that right…) are a little bit like donuts—more dense but just as fried and unhealthy! The taste reminds me of funnel cake. They also have things like popcorn (which I haven’t gotten to enjoy nearly as often as I wish!) and they eat g-nuts plain too. Since the British are the ones who colonized here, “biscuits” (think a type of crispy cookie that are only lightly sweetened) are widely available. They also eat sim sim (sesame seeds) by themselves and a snack that looks like (but doesn’t taste like) sesame sticks. Jackfruit and mangoes are also common snacks in the family groups. Jackfruit...I don't know what to compare it to. The taste reminds me of dried bananas. I need to take a picture of it.....

Street food is the Ugandan version of fast food (I don’t think McDonalds has reached here yet…..). Chapatis are common street food, as are mendazis (I think) and an empanada-type food filled with chick peas. Chips (steak-cut French fries for you Americans), fried eggs, rotisserie chicken with cooked cabbage, roasted maize, and pineapple by the fourth and with the stem still on are also available. There are also “Rolexes” – chapatis with a fried egg and sliced tomato rolled up inside!

So yeah….I think that about covers it! Hope you enjoyed this “tour”/cultural lesson J