Pass the Ugali

Every good meal starts at the market. There you can buy everything you need for nutritious and delicious eats with an African flair. The biggest market is on Saturday and it's then that we stock up on food for the week. Tomatoes, onions, garlic, green peppers, etc. and the occasional new vegetable we've never tried before. For example, they sell what they call 'pumpkins' that to us look like miniature watermelons and taste like squash. The stall tenders also sell lemons that look like limes, but are actually lemons. The lemon/limes were a great addition to our signature guacamole and homemade salsa. Side note, the Scandinavians frequently confuse the name Guatemala with guacamole, FYI.  

Omelet dinner. 

During the week we make dinner at home using fresh market ingredients and are very thankful to have an ex-chef on board (Northe).  

It's also very helpful to have a doctor on board (Meg), especially when someone chops their finger (Laura).  Go team! 

This past weekend, after church, we invited Titus and his family over for American/Italian spaghetti with a homemade red sauce. All ingredients were purchased at the market.  

Cooking the sauce. 

Tobias enjoying pasta and sauce. There weren't many left overs.

Eating out is an adventure. Here in Mutomo it is custom to order your food by phone an hour before arriving at the restaurant. This is because all food is made fresh to order and takes at least an hour or more for the cooks to prepare. All ingredients are bought fresh from the market, with the meat slaughtered daily and produce picked fresh. Needless to say, we're never really sure what we've ordered and how much we've ordered after hanging up the phone. So far it's worked out in our favor!

Northe & Meg out for their anniversary dinner. 

Before we knew about the phoning ahead protocol, we stopped into a local pub for a drink and chips (french fries) with our Swedish friends. Since the cooks were not prepared to make french fries, the owner left to get take-away chips from another restaurant. She showed up with salted chips wrapped in newspaper and individual packets of Kenyan ketchup, which is much sweeter than Heinz. The impressive customer service made them taste that much better.

Chips at a local watering hole. 

When we're not cooking at home or eating out in the town, we head down to the small kitchen here on the hospital grounds called 'the canteen'. It is probably comparable to a US hospital cafeteria. The canteen serves our sukuma wiki, stews with meat, rice, green grams, and chips. We are pretty sure they make the chips just for Northe. Green grams are what they call green lentils here. The name "green grams" is derived from the fact that each lentil weighs 1 gram. Ugali, which is a dish of maize flour (cornflour) cooked with water to a porridge or dough-like consistency is typically served with whatever it is you order. At the canteen they make ugali in a pizza/pie shape and then cut it into individual slices to serve. It is Laura's favorite.

Meg and Laura enjoying some Ugali. 

We also head to the canteen with the rest of the hospital staff every morning around 10:00 am for our tea break. We've come to really enjoy the traditional Kenyan tea, which is very sweet and made with whole milk. At tea time they serve delicious donuts, goat samosas, and hard boiled eggs. 

Tea time.