Tanzanian Vittles

African food. Try to conjure up that image. I had no idea what I would be eating for two months this summer, but now I am very familiar.

My first experience with Tanzanian cuisine was actually at Cornell toward the end of the spring semester. I was taking a semester-long prep course for the trip and we were all invited to eat lunch one Saturday at our professor’s house. Lunch was prepared by two Cornellians who spent 13 weeks last summer volunteering at the Weill-Bugando hospital in Mwanza, Tanzania. They cooked ugali, a polenta-like paste made from corn, a shredded collard greens-ish dish, and an egg dish that had red peppers and cheese. Unfortunately, I haven’t had this egg dish yet.

Unlike the variety of foods that my incredible cook of a mother makes, and the interesting dishes the infamous Deb produces, I have had basically the same meals every day. During my first breakfast with my host family, I was greeted by a large spread of hard boiled eggs, hotdogs (this seems to be a morning food item), tea, natural orange juice, bread, butter, and jelly. I poured my self a cup of the tea, let it cool, and then tried the jelly. The first wave of flavor was intense. I think the closest description would be to take a fruit medley jelly from the U.S., add a cup of sugar and Gatorade’s Fruit Punch ready-mix powder. I continued to eat the jelly for a while, until I felt like it was eating the enamel off my teeth. I starting bringing a jar of peanut butter to the table, and it eventually made it into the breakfast rotation. I really enjoy hard boiled eggs, but two every morning are starting to take its toll on my taste buds. I am thinking about waking up early to cook myself an omelet or some scrambled eggs.

Unlike the U.S. system of 3 meals daily, the Tanzanians have added half a meal in between breakfast and lunch, known as Tea. One thing that I am not sick of is the Tanzanian tea. Locally grown, the flavor is unlike anything else I have tasted. Most of the locals drink it with whole milk but I prefer a cup with a spoon of sugar. With tea, it is common to have some form of fried dough. It’s pretty interesting to note that at one of the most respected medical campuses in Tanzania, there are no baked or boiled goods sold at the campus Canteen. The one healthy alternative is a bowl of fruit salad that is not always available.

For lunch, I have had some form of banana and / or rice every day. The lunch places make a dish called “pilau”, which is seasoned rice and beef that tastes pretty good. Ndizi is another dish that I like, which is cooked bananas, covered in a somewhat salty banana sauce and beef. With one of these meals comes a form of vegetable, sometimes the collard green that I mentioned above, or often shredded cabbage. There is also a complementary piece of uncooked banana which I think is the highlight of the meal. I have never tasted such good bananas. The Chagga, the prominent tribe in the Moshi area, are known to make most of their essentials out of the banana plant (food, beer, houses, etc) and I think they have perfected the art of banana growing.

Dinner everyday is basically the same. The meal is usually rice covered with a sauce, vegetables, and a meat. The meat is either chicken, fish, or beef, but most often beef. The fish is… interesting. I think the first time I had the fish was about two weeks ago on a sunny Wednesday. As I was walking back from KCMC, I passed a woman sitting on the side of the road selling whole, roasted fish about 6 – 8 inches in length. I’m not much of a fish person and but I wasn’t the first to say that these fish did not look very appetizing. I thought about the lack of local water sources in the area, and then tried to dispel the thought of eating the animal. That night, atop my heap of rice was one of those fish, cooked in some type of spice. Not to upset my hosts, I ate as much as I could, but did not come close to sucking out the eyeballs as did my host parents. It actually wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be, but I would rather eat as little of it as possible.

To me, the highlight of dinner is dessert. Where as Americans most often enjoy foods like ice cream, cake or cookies for dessert, the Tanzanians choose to eat fresh fruit. Although they have many more seeds then the fruit I normally eat back home, I think the fruits I have eaten here have more flavor and possess a natural sweetness that I don’t taste in America.

Overall I have enjoyed all the foods I have eaten so far, but am looking for a change. I look forward to Thursdays when the Cornell students go to our professor’s house and she bakes us some sort of American dessert. The first time we had cookies, followed by strawberry shortcake, and then last week was chocolate-zucchini cake. I am hoping this time it will be cookies again, or if I had my choice, Popsicles. I also heard that one of the Cornell girls brought some Gatorade mix, so I’ll have to investigate that. Hopefully, next weekend’s trip to Zanzibar will bring out some new dishes.

Additional bracelet. I traded the coffee bean one for this one. Technically #5