I'm Thankful for Good Food

The first few weeks that I spent in Acholiland, I was a bit annoyed at how proud the Acholi are of their food.  Acholi live in the most fertile part of the country, and will proudly tell anyone who will listen that their food is organic and very high quality.  At first I doubted whether this was true, but most people in Uganda "garden" both to feed themselves and for whatever income they earn, and have been doing so for generations.   Ugandans will insist that you eat a huge amount of whatever they give you, and will get insulted if you don't eat it.  I  finally ended up just telling my family that the food was much better here and I just wasn't used to it.

And let's be honest- the food is better here.  There are many things I did not/do not like in the states that I like/don't mind here: green pepper, mango, papaya, pineapple, and sweet potatoes.  Despite Uganda having laws forbidding genetically modified organisms from entering markets here, the enforcement is lacking.  So there might be some Monsanto seeds, hybrid fruits (the oranges that don't get orange is a key suspect), and a lot of non-native species (jack fruit and cassava) the food is nonetheless fresh, local, and delicious.

Eggs.  A dozen would go for like $1.50

After living here for a while, I'm starting to really appreciate the food system.  You buy your food the day you use it.  There's no need for a refrigerator.  Eggs stay fresh for weeks because chickens are raised well.    There's virtually no processed food.  The only gluten is from bread bought at the one supermarket in town, which you could easily avoid.  The same goes for sweets or dessert food.

Oranges (they stay green here) and avocado

5 small tomatoes cost $0.20, and you buy them from the lady who grows them.  Pineapple now costs $1.50 instead of $0.50 because its out of season, which is reasonable.  Food is more expensive out of season, which means you eat food when it's fresh.  Plus, fresh, organic, local produce is actually cheaper than junk food (or even low quality produce in the grocery store).  I love how buying roasted maize or and avocado is literally a quarter of the price of buying something processed.  It's as it should be.

You buy real produce, with spots, bumps, and uneven ripeness.  You buy real food from real people.

You cook everything (eggplant, cabbage, cassava, sweet or white potato, beans, eggs) basically the same: caramelize onions, throw in tomatoes (green peppers are optional), make a sauce, insert boiled/stir fried main dish here.  Add to rice or other starch and you're good to go.

Onion and ginger

I guess if I ate meat, I would be a bit put off by the open air meat shacks that sell goat meat.  You buy chickens or turkeys live, and do everything else yourself.  Beef isn't on the market now because all the cattle in the country have all been immunized against some disease and can't be sold for 3 months.  You can get milk or yogurt at the grocery store, but its expensive and not that good.  The only animal products I eat are eggs and a butter-like spread.

A rather small papaya

That's not to say everything here is health food.  Acholi cooking involves a rather off-putting amount of oil.  They judge me for only putting one teaspoon of sugar into my tea.  There's a ton of salt and a beef ramen-noodle like flavoring in everything.  They love soda, and a magarine-like spread that doesn't need refrigeration.  And Westerners have brought chips (french fries) here (why sweet potato fries aren't popular yet is beyond me).  But really, without processed food, salty food isn't going to kill you.

Since moving out of our home-stays, we've had some wonderful cooking adventures.  Our house is equipped with slightly above average cooking accessories: two burner propane stove (only one burner works consistently) instead of a one burner charcoal stove, running water and electricity.

Beans (about $1 a pound) 

Soon after we moved in, we realized why our home-stay families usually have one member of the family whose contribution to the household is solely cooking; the Acholi way of cooking with one burner takes at least 3 hours.

You'd be surprised how many college students don't know how to cook rice without a rice cooker.  Here, you have to sort the rice to remove sticks and stones.

We had a little cassava incident because we only found out after we ate cassava and we all had the runs that cassava has mild toxins in it and you have to soak it before you eat it, otherwise it's mildly poisonous.

Rice, Irish potatoes, and the ever-present onion/tomato sauce

Why is Guacamole not more of a thing here?

Our first attempt at Chapati, a fried maize flour tortilla like thing that kinda tastes like Indian nan, and probably is Uganda's version on nan considering the Indian influence.

As we're planning Thanksgiving here, I'm beginning to think about how we can modify the traditional foods to our location.  Pumpkins, sweet potatoes, and maize are all easy to find.  Ovens are really unusual (only restaurants or hotels have them) so for breads and pies we might have to buy them or borrow a friend's oven.  I've only seen a few turkeys in town, but I don't know if we're ready to kill it, pluck it, and clean it ourselves. I'd be fine skipping it, but I think some of my room mates want it.  I'd love some macaroni and cheese, but cheese is expensive and often moldy at the store.  I haven't seen green beans (and I'm pretty sure cranberries are not available), but we'll have some kind of greens.  I'd much rather make a really delicious Acholi meal than a really expensive, only ok American Thanksgiving.