“Ufurahie chakula chako!,” or “Bon Appetit!” Tanzania
So this week I thought maybe a little lighter blog sharing about the foods I’ve eaten here in Tanzania. I know I won’t do it justice as most of what I’ve primarily eaten was from the conference hotel center both in Dar and Dodoma where mostly Tanzanian food was provided during orientation and at Peace Corps headquarters in Dar. My host family served vegetables they grew and chicken and eggs they raised so that seemed like pretty normal healthy foods like I am used to. I did let Grace our house mamma cook the fish from the market and the rice/vegetable dish along with it and it was good and not too spicy. She was unsure how to cook brown rice though:)
Though the countries diet is based on starchy grains of sorghum, millet, corn, pilaf, beans, cassava, and plantains, there are a lot of healthy vegetables I am enjoying like tomatoes, cucumber and green peppers (one Swahili word I can remember pili pili ho ho) and fish. I am hoping to stay low carb here, eat mainly 2 meals a day, and there are not a lot of sweets I have found that I like unless I make them myself so it is not that hard to eat healthy.
Breakfast
Tanzanian diets have been influenced by India as well as Germany (coffee) and England (tea). It is difficult to find ground coffee and coffee beans though. Good thing I am not that particular and can drink instant with dried milk. Because it is hot here I tend to make my coffee ahead and get it cold in the fridge at night since you never know if you will have electricity to heat water when you wake up. Plus it is time consuming enough to filter drinking water so I am not doing ice cubes. No Starbucks coffee snobs here.
Many people drink tea ( chai ) in Tanzania (sometimes with spices like cardimun, sugar, and/or hot steamed milk). I often now weaken the tea with water to decrease the sugar and caffeine content. Tanzania is one of the biggest tea growers in the world. Usually, tea is drunk in the morning during breakfast or late morning with chapatti and mandazi, or vitumua. Mandazi is a donut formed of fried coconut bread called east African donuts. Vitumbua (small rice cakes) are sweet fried breads.
Chapatti is a type of flatbread. I have had it for breakfast with boiled eggs, also for Chai plain and with an evening meal. I’ve heard it is good crisped like chips. Though I like them, I don’t eat alot of them due to the carbs and oil for the most part.
Shopping at the Market for Fresh produce
Because not all Tanzanians have refrigerators, many Tanzanian got to the market every day or two if not every day and there are stands at every corner almost. There are not that many large supermarkets though Mwanza has a mall with two grocery stores in it but we tend to just walk to town and try different small stores (sokonis) as they all sell different things but most no fruits and vegetables as there is the market for that. For now I let Grace our house mamma do the shopping for vegetables at the market as it requires dealing with price gouging for white mzungus and negotiating in Swahili. I don’t even like to bargain at yard sales in the U.S. so don’t like it here. This week when I said buy a chicken (we had gotten a small frozen one earlier for $3.00) she asked if I wanted a fresh one (after clarifying it would be killed at the market and not brought home live I said get one and I did not see signs of feathers when I came home). I would love to send a picture of the true market here but it is impolite to take pictures without asking so for now I try not to attempt it after my Dar experience at the nane nane day and the vendor was a little upset I took pictures of his meat.
There are many fruits and vegetables at the market which is great. I still have not figured out what might be in season. Right now I see a lot of biringani (eggplant), nyana (tomatoes), beans, muhogo (cassava), spinach and other greens, and maize (similar to corn) are frequently eaten, many of which are grown in backyard gardens. Salads we are encouraged to stay away from due to not knowing if there might be water contamination. I have soaked their spinach in bleach water then rinsed and made salad. I do like Kachumbari Ya Parachichi, a salad of avocado, cucumber & tomato. One very good dish I tried was Spinach Stew at a local restaurant. It was very good and I’d like to make it. The spinach is not exactly like our spinach but hopefully getting my green vegetable nutrients.
Ndizi Kaanga (fried bananas or plantains) is a local dish that is very popular in Tanzanian and I’ve seen Ndiza nyama ( green bananas cooked with meat served (see the below picture). There are plenty of ndizi (bananas) and coconut. Mangos are not yet in season but I have a tree next to my house where the green ones keep falling off. I have found dried banana chips that have chili seasoning at the grocery store that are a good snack.
The cooked plantains, rice, meat, greens and watermelon we often had during training.
Common Tanzanian Foods
Ugali is a thick mash staple made of corn, maize, sorghum, cornmeal or corn flour and stiff like mashed potatoes consistency. A generous serving of this Tanzanian staple accompanies most meals, serving as a simple, filling supplement to the main course. The staple is accompanied by a type of meat along with several vegetables. My Swahili teacher said that hers was much better than what we were served at the conference center. Though I have not seen or done this tradition, Tanzanians will use three fingers to scoop out a small amount of ugali then roll it into a ball and use their thumbs to form an indentation in the center. They’re left with a miniature ugali “bowl” that can be used to scoop up whatever else is on the plate, from meat stews and fish curries to vegetable side-dishes like sukuma wiki (an east African version of collard greens).
Meat is not widely consumed except for special occasions or if they raise the meat themselves. Cattle, sheep, and goats are raised primarily for their milk and the value they contribute to social status. When meat is consumed, however, nyama choma (grilled meat) and ndayu (roasted, young goat) are most popular.
Since I live on Lake Victoria there are a lot of fish (Samaki) here which so far I have liked. The Lake Perch and Tilapia have been good in sauces, soups and with rice. Mchemsho is a fish soup with carrots, potatoes, greens, eggplant, cabbage, onion sometimes is served for breakfast that was very good during training.
Grace made my first Tanzanian Fish meal. Coconut milk is a common ingredient found in many of the dishes.
Mishkaki is a barbecue, which is similar to Indian tandoori or Middle Eastern kebabs, yet it has its own Tanzanian flavors added. It is usually made from beef, goat, chicken, or fish, that’s marinated, skewered and grilled over charcoal. They roast the meat until blackened, giving it a lovely fiery flavor.
Mishkaki
We also had in Dodoma an Arabic dish called Shawurma which was BBQ cooked on a horizontal spit a long time then put into a bread type roll with various types of dressings.
Tanzanian snack foods include foods like Samosas, originally brought over from India, are available both on the streets and at restaurants throughout the country. There are normally both vegetarian and meat filled versions. The meat samosas are a combination of minced beef with onions, garlic, and spices, all wrapped into a pastry shell and deep-fried.Sorta life an eggroll
So far these snacks I’ve tasted are not as tempting as zucchini muffins, squash pie which I made the last 2 weekend to share with work and church. Grace said pumkins were in season so I said get one and she came back with a winter squash so I adapted the recipie for a squash pie which turned out ok similar to pumkin.
One of the neighbors gave me some peanuts so thought I’d try and make a peanut oatmeal cookie sometime for their family.
I did get hooked on their pineapple, and Fanta strawberry soda while in training where we had it free but now I rarely buy soda. There is one interesting soda I tried was Tangawizi which is Ok but not worth the calories very often. They do have coke, Mt Dew, and Sprite products as well as snickers candy bars in the stores. Others have said the chocolate is not that good but again I try to avoid these and even when I’ve tried one it is fine. We have gotten ice cream that is not bad and not that expensive but it is not Dairy Queen or Baskin Robbins. I also miss Salmon which I have not seen here but plenty of other fish.
There is wine but most say the South African wines are the best not the Dodoma. The beers are Kilimanjaro, Safari, Castle plus some local brew out of Banana. Since I don’t drink much I would not know how good these are.
I think the above is Kacholi- a potato based appetizer commonly sold by street vendors and has been one of my favorite foods. It is spicy and really very good. And I think made from potatoes, sweet potatoes or bananas mashed with hot peppers in it.
Kashata is a street food from Tanzania made from coconuts, peanuts and other nuts which was good.
There are also bags of peanuts sold on the street which are very fresh and good.
Sack lunch of samosa, chicken, vegetable sandwiches, Chipsi, bananas on one of our field trips.
Hope you enjoyed the foods here. I have enjoyed tasting these though some I chose not to eat so that I can say I lost weight not gained. I’m sure i’ll have many other eating experiences throughout the year. I am often asked have you been sick? So far no. I just drink the filtered or bottled water and follow some guidelines on fresh food. Hope I can say this next July!
Disclaimer: This is a personal weblog. The thoughts and opinions here are those of Jennie Van Schyndel. The information does not in any way represent or reflect the opinions of the Peace Corps or Global Seed Health.
