What do you eat?

One of the most common questions I receive is, "What do you eat?" Being a tropical country, Tanzania has all the usual suspects at the core of the dishes: cassava, potatoes, maize, banana, rice, greens, beans, vegetable oil and assorted vegetables (carrots, peas, cucumber, eggplant). These things have been in nearly all the local dishes I've eaten and readily available at the market. Although some things are seasonal, I assume that most of the items listed are available year round, whether grown locally or imported from other regions of Tanzania or East Africa. You can readily find mango and pineapples being sold, even though it's not the season.

As mentioned earlier, one of my favorite things about my job is we get free lunch. The cooks serve food to the children staying at our transition home and they cook enough so staff can also eat. This means the food is both local and nutritious. It also means that it is very filling, which leads to me eating a much smaller dinner.

I've posted some pictures below of our average lunch dishes. For dinner I typically steam veggies, usually a mixture of potato, carrot, cabbage, peas and onions, or if I'm really lazy, I'll go around the corner to a local bar/restaurant and get fries and chicken (or another meat) for 5,000 Tsh (about $3.50). There are also VERY local "restaurants" (called mama ntilie, meaning "mama serve me") though I'd call them more food shacks, that serve rice and beans for about 1000 Tsh (about $0.75). These are usually temporary set ups with a a few simple charcoal stoves.

For breakfast I am pretty routine orientated, so every day (literally) I have some oatmeal, a banana and a cup of coffee or tea. Because of Moshi's proximity to Mt. Kilimanjaro, coffee is easily grown and readily available in the area (coffee needs elevation to grow well). We have "tea time" at work around 11, so even if my breakfast is small, I always have a cup of chai and a chapati and/or samosa waiting for me.

When we have a workshop or meeting, we get bites on the house. This is obviously my dream team of bites. Chapati, donut, samosa and something called a kebabu that yes, resembles a turd, but is also delicious. 

It's funny because in the end my diet is very healthy and although I like to be somewhat conscious of what I eat, I wouldn't describe myself as a nutrition or health freak. I'm more concerned with eating locally, which inevitably is much cheaper anyway, as well as having fresh food.

Breakfast routine. 

It's just too easy to eat well here; extremely fresh and cheap vegetables are available just around the corner, a variety of sweet fruits are equally cheap, and any processed and imported food is too expensive to even think about buying. Well, I should admit, my one imported food that I have is olive oil (to go with the steamed vegetables) but I should be able to bring a five liter bottle on my next trip back from Spain. I tried eating steamed veggies with local vegetable oil and although it was palatable, it certainly was not delicious.

Rice, beans, assorted greens, and pineapple.

Ugali, gravy, chicken, greens, and pineapple. 

Bean/rice mixture (makande), greens, with a slice of watermelon.

Christmas party feast. 

Hope the pictures above give you a glimpse at some normal meals here in Tanzania. I'll do another post focused exclusively on local delicacies...coming soon!