Food. Part II

I already wrote about the foods that I have been eating here, so this post will discuss where the food comes from and how it is cooked.

Local Foods (Market)

The majority of the foods that are eaten here are grown locally and sold locally. There are not many large grocery stores (there aren’t many small ones either), so most food is bought in open air markets or in small dukas (shops). Tropical fruits are very cheap here (even with the inflated mzungu price I often get) and I’m really going to miss them (well, I won’t miss bananas, we get decent bananas back home). Generally, this reliance on local foods seems like a very good idea to me, though I’m sure here it’s done out of necessity rather than choice. Still, I think the food I eat is much healthier (i.e. it has more nutrients) than food from back home.

Imported Foods

Despite an abundance of local produce, there are still many places where you can buy imported and processed food. The majority of the imported food seems to come from South Africa or the Middle East (Oman has been seen on several labels). There are very few brands that North Americans would recognize (Coke, Pepsi, Snickers, etc.). My homestay family does not seem to eat a lot of process and/or imported foods.

Food Preparation

Cooking food in Tanzania is a very different process than in either Canada or Korea. There are no stoves or ovens here (at least none that I have seen). Usually, a family makes a fire with charcoal (in a special container whose name I’ve forgotten or was never told). The food is cooked in pots on top of the burning coals. Like many other things here this often takes a long time. Once, we made pancakes for one of the family’s here and we spent over 2 hours and only made about 25-30 very thin and small pancakes (but boy were they good).