Food

 Every day at work at 1pm  a traditional Ugandan lunch is served in the cafeteria.  The subsidized cost depends on what sauce you choose but is about 1000 USh or 40 cents.  The food is absolutely delicious but filling so if I can survive until what is a relatively late lunch for me, I don't need to eat much for the rest of the day.

From 12o'clock working clockwise around the plate below it's
1) Matoke (yellow), a large green-skinned savory banana that is steamed in banana leaves then mashed. There are matoke behind the pineapple in the picture two below - I found some in the street market on the opposite side of the roundabout I walk past on my way to work. You peel and steam them - they really stick to the masher!
2) Bean sauce (orange).  There is a choice of several different sauces offered each day; I've also tried a delicious sauce made by simmering ground peanuts with tomatoes and onions for a couple of hours, and there can be meat sauces with chicken, beef, goat, pork or lamb, and fish sauce, either tilapia or Nile perch
3) Ugali or Posho (white).  This is a porridge made from maize which Ugandans eat for breakfast but is also served set and cut in chunks with lunch
4) Greens - I think this kind is called Boo.  You can also get locally grown broccoli, French beans and cabbage
5) Cassava
6) Rice

Other common foods are potatoes (which are call "Irish" here) and corn on the cob (maize) which everyone grows in their garden. The high altitude here means I have to boil vegetables longer than I'm used to since water boils at a lower temperature. There's a plantain that is served roasted called gonja which is large like matoke but a pale color.

I'm supplementing my diet with lots of fresh fruit- sweet banana, mango and pineapple are widely available and I'm looking out for jackfruit, which I'm told is really sweet
Here are some unripe jackfruit still on the tree

On June 16 I found a lady and her son selling jackfruit at Kisementi, so I bought a small piece for 1000 USh.  I really liked the taste, which reminded me of papaya.

There's a large Ugandan-Indian community so there are many excellent Indian restaurants.  The best is Khana Khazana so I plan to celebrate my birthday there...

I have a kitchen in the apartment so can cook for myself - I'm rather proud of the carrot cake I baked today (haven't tasted it yet though...)

 

June 10: here's another foodie update.  I'm enjoying my second Sunday cook-a-thon and will be eating leftovers all week.  I've been going to a small Saturday farmers' market at the local coffee shop MishMash and this week they had oyster mushrooms.

Here's the end result - chicken and mushroom casserole with matoke, green veg and banana bread for dessert.

June 16:  here's my egg salad lunch made from fresh produce from the Mishmash farmers' market

June 30: I'm really enjoying cooking with whatever's at hand here.  Today's Kamwokya market finds included freshly shelled peas, fresh cilantro and enormous ripe avocados.

It rained all afternoon so I had fun making vanilla icecream and apple pie.