On Food and Cooking

Of course one always assumes new foods will be encountered while traveling or living abroad. More striking to me are the foods you expect to taste the same that don’t. Sugar vs. corn syrup is a fairly ubiquitous switch world-wide, of course. (I remember the Mexican-led run on kosher, sugar-based, Coca-Cola near the Jewish holidays when I lived in Allston.) And we have been drinking a ton of full-sugar soda here (hello three flavors of Fanta – orange, pineapple and passion). But it’s been interesting how tomatoes and eggs and oranges taste different too. Points out just how used we are to the singular tastes of mass-produced American products.

Nathaniel and I have been so spoiled by our well-stocked Boston kitchen! It is a fun challenge figuring out old favorites using sub-par equipment and slightly different ingredients, and trying to learn how to cook with local flavors. And with only three pots and no microwave, there is a lot of juggling things around for storage and re-heating. Some of my favorite experiments so far:

Caramel Popcorn

We were jonesin’ for some comfort food a few nights back and decided to take a stab at one of our favorite desserts, despite having no corn syrup, no microwave (our Boston method is crazy and stove-free) and only raw sugar! Enter some popcorn that I bought for 200 kwacha at the local market, “golden syrup” (pancake syrup made from…you guessed it, sugar not corn) our mini cooker and the caramel syrup recipe from our new resource, “The Malawi Cookbook”. All is going well with the caramelizing process and Nathaniel’s popped up a first batch of corn. We realize that these home-grown puppies aren’t nearly as big once popped as the commercial corn we’re used to and go to make a second batch. But wait! What are those little black things in the corn? The dreaded corn-burrowers? Indeed – lots of the kernels have little holes eaten right through them and those little black things are bugs. We actually go through with eating the caramel corn, which comes out surprisingly tasty – after all, those bugs are well cooked and bugs are a great source of nutrition according to our Malawi cook book! For those of you who can’t imagine Nathaniel eating popcorn with known bugs in it, I admit that I am also impressed! We do get rid of the remaining dried stuff ;)

Nsima with Soya “Chicken a al King”

Nsima with “relish” is the basic staple food here in Malawi. It’s really fine-ground maize cooked into a stiff porridge (you can cut it with a knife when cool). Dried cream of maize is super cheap, and we’re intrigued by the line of Imana super soya mince products, which are also very inexpensive. We choose the “Chicken a la King” flavor, which seems less dicey than Oxtail or Mutton (Arinda, are you salivating yet?). We follow the recipe on the Imana box for “Chilli Braai Pap” – soya mince, an onion, tomato and some maize meal. Of course the instructions about how much water to add are contradictory and the original recipe is HUGE, so we wing it a bit. Final verdict? Corn-soya mash a little like baby food, but not bad.

Pancakes!

Pancakes are a weekend morning tradition for Nathaniel and I and it was hard to feel settled until we were able to cook some up. Luckily, pancake ingredients are easy to find the world over, and although we can’t get any real Vermont syrup, the golden stuff isn’t too bad. We crafted our first batch last Saturday – good thing because the power was out Sunday morning and we had to settle for cereal and bread with jam. In fact, I also cooked up pancakes this morning, even though it’s a work day for Nathaniel. Given the heat, the unreliability of electricity, and the lack of things to do in the evening, everyone is on a very early schedule. We’ve shifted to a 6:30 wake-up with little trouble (yes, for those of you who know Nathaniel is not a morning person, this is also quite astonishing). We’ve gotten into quite a nice routine of yoga and working in the garden plus tea and breakfast. Seems livable!