Stomachs on legs are proud to present

I like Rooibos tea.

It's a great any-time-of-the-day caffeine-free flavorful beverage that is rich in mineral.

After I ran out of the stock I bought in Malawi, in Thailand I could only find the ridiculously overpriced ones in Tops supermarket, so I stocked up when I was in Germany last year.

After I ran out of it, I met a Zambian NGO worker based in Thailand, who brought me a couple of boxes from his business trip to South Africa.

After I ran out it and the kind Zambian friend left Thailand, in the health food section of Watson's drugstore, I found Rooibos tea bags on sale, so I grabbed several boxes.


It has traveled quite a distance...


Sourced from South Africa, blended in Germany, packed in New Zealand, and here I am I bought it in Thailand.

So much of the food miles but at least it weights very little.

Throwing up a couple of Ghanaian pictures today from a South African music blog that I've ended up on the mailing list for.
I won't link to the column because its "Gods Must Be Crazy" bonhomie is a bit much to bear.
But I must admit I wouldn't mind dropping past the “If God Say Yes Snack Shop” for some fresh Fufu (a local dish of meat, sauce and giant sticky dumpling, eaten with your hands).

The "Potato Salad Dance"



Dance Your PhD Winner Brian Stewart "Refitting repasts: a spatial exploration of food processing, sharing, cooking, and disposal at the Dunefield Midden campsite, South Africa."

Maybe the injera I ate in Boston was made of the teff grown in Idaho...

The Teff Company founder, Wayne Carlson, first became involved in Ethiopian affairs during the early 1970’s. In the course of his work there Wayne lived as a guest of the local farming folk. The farmers were eager to show their guest their farms and crops and he became devoted to the local food. The farmers have a wide variety of crops including barley, wheat, sorghum, maize, finger millet and now even potatoes. But they prefer to grow and eat teff even though the yield is much less than that of barley or wheat. Since all the work is done by muscle power, Wayne wondered why they didn’t devote themselves to that grain which would grow the biggest return.

Later, in Idaho, Wayne was fascinated by the geological and climatic similarities of the Snake River region and the East African Rift. Both are the result of major dynamics in the earth’s crust, resulting in massive basaltic lava flows and tectonic movements. And both are subjected to hot summers with intense sunlight. The idea came that it may be possible to grow teff in the Snake River Valley. Why not change the direction of cultural influence? Rather than exporting “development” practices to Ethiopia, why not take some wisdom from an ancient culture? From there it was a small step to contact Ethiopians living in the American metropolitan areas and re-establish the relation between the Ethiopians and their favorite grain.

The Teff Company has been supplying the Ethiopian and Eritrean communities for nearly twenty years with American-grown Maskal Teff. With the fertile fields and ecologically sensitive farming methods some of the best quality teff in the world is produced in Idaho.

As word of the superior nutritional properties of Maskal Teff spread it has become available nationally in health food stores and by direct mail.

Hmm.

The assumption that the cultural influence is unidirectional and the bits about "ancient culture" sound a little cheesy, but how else can you put it, to keep a faithful face to this endeavor?

Hopefully they won't get into patenting the hybrid teff, like RiceTec that made Indians furious for patenting hybrid basmati rice.

Besides, it is a bit disappointing that they don't have a recipe for injera in their recipe page, where they only suggest mostly Western style recipes:

Mocha Tofu Apricot Teff Pie
Cook Teff with Other Grains
Millet and Teff with Squash and Onions
Mocha Teff Scones
Apple or Pear Crisp
Tofu Vegetable Quiche
Teff Polenta
Pancakes
Teff Banana Pancakes
Peanut Butter Cookies
Dessert Pie Crust
Apple Teff Crumb Pie
Lemon Poppy Seed Cake

These recipes are interesting by itself, but do they assume teff flour buyers already know how to fix their injera?

I'd be curious if Ethiopians would taste test the Idaho teff and Ethiopian teff.

A couple of years back I had a week in Ethiopia.

After the anglophone part of deep East Africa, Ethiopia felt a bit like Europe.

One of the reasons is that their lovely Italian style macchiato... not to mention Ethiopia's superb coffee.

I know there are plenty of bad things about colonization, but like French style café's and baguettes in Laos, the Europeans have left some yummy trails.

But the huge greasy spaghetti that came with a pile of fries was less European... was more African, for their love of carbo and fries.


After a couple of tries of European style dishes and having learned that they are huge carbo-grease bombs, I started to stick with Ethiopian food.

I was trying to de-meat my diet while in Ethiopia, having felt I had so much meat in East Africa.

Fish goulash was one of the few choices on regular days.

But on vegetarian days - the Ethiopian orthodox church sets two days a week as vegetarian days - the restaurants have nice vegetarian specials.


I had this in Lalibela. Several bean stews and salad.

I was in Lalibela for the Ethiopian Christmas. I sat down with a French photographer staying at the same lodge, who ordered himself some meat stew dish, but kept stealing my bean stew... I thought French men were nicer.


I had this deluxe one in Addis Ababa. I wish the vegetarian special was available seven days a week!

I thought I had more of hand-to-mouth food photos, since I have been to the land of maize meal and have been in the land of sticky rice afterwards.

I found surprisingly few.

I think I also have my hands on food not on camera when hand-to-mouth commensality occurs. Here are some I managed to dig out.

The maize meal is called nshima in Malawi, ugali in Kenya and Tanzania and several more different names throughout South-East Africa. In homes, it sometimes comes served in the covered pot that keep them warm.

It's actually quite hot when they are freshly made... but the locals seem to have more tolerance to the heat from the maize meal.

The manner is to rinse your fingers first, then roll the nshima into a ball with your fingers. Some seem to be using a part of the palm. It takes some training... nshima feels a lot looser than sticky rice. It's similar to the consistency of, say, mashed potatoes after all the liquids are added.

The Kenyan and Tanzanian equivalent, ugali, has thicker consistency and is sometimes made hard enough to be cut into small pieces, so I was told.

The picture above might be condowole, similar texture to nshima made with white maize flour, but instead made with cassava flour.

Some people told me that if you keep eating condowole, you get constipated... I guess there is almost no fiber left in the starchy cassava flour.

Nshima and condowole are eaten with the relish.

The poor man's relish is pumpkin leaves cooked with just salt, while a bit better-off folks add tomatoes and onions.

Often, beans are the only protein source to accompany the meal.

Then comes usipa (small dried fish), also cooked with tomatoes and onions.

While in the city of Lilongwe, expats have them with chicken or beef. Or sometimes with chambo, freshwater fish from the Lake Malawi.

These prime protein sources are occasionally eaten in the countryside as well, but more rarely, and in many places limited on festivities.

There is so much attachment people seemed to have with this staple food. When I asked the project driver what his favorite food was... he thought about it for more than a few seconds, then said, nshima!

... and yes, fruits are also the classic hand-to-mouth food.

These small girls are not drying fish, but rather, walked around to sell these fish, while snacking on local mangoes.

When I stayed in the countryside at a local development officer's house, every once in a while we'd run out of water, which they brought from the nearby well about 500 meters away. After dark, there is no way you would walk to the well, so when the water is finished, it's finished.

So, after the meal is eaten in the evening, I sometimes went to bed feeling leftover nshima on my fingertips... which seemed to stick even after rinsing with a wee bit of water and rubbing off with tissues I brought. And I would try not to use those fingertips to take off my contact lens.

It was sold by Otsuka Seiyaku in Japan from 2000 to 2003.

The TV commercial below takes place at a Japanese "snack" where people speak Osaka dialect...



Apparently they were trying to target the middle-aged "salary men"... to get the rigor like that of Maasai warriors...

Photo: Try African Food Blog

For some time now I've had not an insignificant obsession with African food, or I think it might be more correct to say Ethopian food....Although I'm sure that Africa as an enormous and diverse continent has a great many varied dishes, for some reason Ethiopians have managed to globally define perceptions of "african food". My first introduction to Ethopian was in Melbourne on Fitzroy St. Thus "african food" for me means injera bread and special tibs and that's about the sum of it. I'm pretty keen on the bread and the stews and since then I've tended to hunt down African or rather Ethopian restaurants where ever possible.

When I went to Rome I went and had African or rather Ethopian food

In Bangkok my fav place was Abbasyniya cafe which has since closed leaving a gap in the bangkok afican food market

I recently tried a restaurant here in Canberra simply named Ethopian Food

So, if like me your knowledge of African food could use a major upgrade subscribe to this excellent new blog and be enlightened