Uganda, Africa | the food

I was debating whether  this next post should be about Ugandan food or Hands In Service -the ministry that was the reason for our trip- but the food won out because I already had the post typed up!

When preparing for the trip, Eleanna and I had been told we would probably be doing all the cooking for everyone at the house but she and I only cooked once! We all fixed our own breakfasts and lunches were either at the H.I.S office or we scrounged. For dinners we ate at the Soroti hotel or a friend’s restaurant, were invited to someone’s home or Esther {the sweet girl who helped with laundry, kitchen & cleaning} left a meal for us before she went home. We were trying to employ them/give them our business as much as possible-- they do so much for the ministry and for us.

Posho {boiled mais & water}, beans & dodo {cooked greens--almost like spinach} are basic staples and we ate those almost everyday. They were even better when topped with fresh avocados, tomatoes and red onions! 

Chappati {a thick tortilla}, African salad {shredded cabbage & carrots}, bananas, rice, irish potatoes {mostly fried, sometimes mashed}, greens with a peanut sauce & cooked cabbage were also dishes that we had over and over. 

sorting beans to be soaked and then cooked at H.I.S.

where they cook the beans and posh at H.I.S.

Everything was so yummy & fresh! Anytime we had meat or fish it had been freshly butchered or caught and everything else was fresh and unprocessed. All of that helped to outweigh the huge amounts of starch & carbs in our diet!

We joked how each time you went to a restaurant or someone’s home for dinner, the reason it took so long for the food to come was because they had to go butcher the chicken and pluck the feathers when you got there before they could cook it for you! The truth was, they don’t start cooking your meal until you arrive because, in going with African time, you probably won’t arrive until an hour past the scheduled time. That is, if you arrive at all. So there’s no point in cooking the food and letting it get cold... or go to waste. If you make reservations at the hotel the afternoon before you go, your service might be a little faster and you might not have to wait so long for your meal.

spaghetti on the buffet at the hotel one night was a huge surprise!

Bananas are incredibly plentiful in Uganda and we got quite the education on them one night from a few of the locals but I’ll keep it simple. 

Begoyas are the big, long and fat bananas

Ripes are small and short bananas which are often times called apple bananas because of the flavor.

They eat mangos when they are small - about the size of a large egg- as well as when they are fully grown and ripe.

 Most oranges are eaten when they are still green and so are some lemons. El and I sometimes had the hardest time differentiating between what was an orange, what was a lime and what was a lemon! 

Pineapple, Pawpaw{Papaya} & Jackfruit were very common fruits as well.

They will only eat green peppers- thinking the red are too ripe. The photos are of red peppers though and that’s because we’re trying to convince them that they are still good to eat! 

Avocados are ginormous and so yummy! Some of the pits were almost as big as my fist! 

Cabbage is served with almost every meal because it’s more hearty than lettuce and is good fresh or cooked. 

Anytime we were a guest in someone’s home, they usually served more than one kind of meat or fish. Goat, beef, chicken, pork, Nile perch, and tilapia were very common. But while we ate in such luxury as guests, an average person in the villages does not eat meat so often. 

Breakfasts were pretty simple and I had the same thing to eat every morning while in Soroti. 

Toast {with either ground nut paste -a.k.a. peanut butter-, agave or butter & sugar}, cheese, tea &/or juice and a ripe. Oh and I couldn't forget my malaria pill- that was a must!

All drinks were bottled except for teas and other hot drinks. Everywhere we went, it was the norm to serve bottled water, Fanta/Mtn. Dew/Sprite/Marinda/Stoney in glass bottles and hot tea/African tea. Passion juice is also common.

During the weekend we were in northwest Uganda, the meals at the lodges were much different that what we had been eating in Soroti but still pretty typical of Uganda. Fish, veggie lasagna, soups, African salad, fresh fruit, eggs, sausage & tea. For our snacks and lunches, we would stop at lodges for drinks and then -because their food took longer to prepare than our schedule would allow- we'd eat energy bars and ripes with peanut butter. {Even at a swanky, $300 a night lodge on the Nile!}