South Africa!

I had a fantastic vacation to South Africa from February 12-26. I went for the U2 concerts but was awed by the amazing cheap food and amenities such as potable tap water. To relate the vacation to my time in Rwanda, I figure a list of everything I ate in South Africa should convey just what I’ve been deprived of after a year in Rwanda. Although it probably won’t be as exciting to the average blog reader!
sushi x3, haagen dazs x3, other ice cream/gelato x3, falafel & hummus x2, fruit (grapes, nectarines, peaches, pears, plums, cantaloupe, raspberries, blueberries, strawberries, kiwi), cheese (haloumi, parmesan, brie, blue, feta, cheddar), a disappointing bagel & smoked salmon, pizza x4 (with great cheese!), greek, cheeseburger, burger with brie, big mac, pickles, tons of braai (bbq) meat (beef, chicken, pork, sausage, lamb, ostrich), doritos and chips and spicy cornnuts, tons of salads with goodies like cheese and olives and bacon in them, sandwich with mozerella and artichokes and other delights not found in Rwanda, heavenly chocolate mousse from the grocery store.

 It was exciting to see the Rwandan flag scroll across the giant 360 screen with other African flags during the U2 concerts!

 Bye U2! See you in 2015?

 South Africa is truly the land of opportunity: Ice for Africa and Pizza from a vending machine!

Me at a very windy Cape of Good Hope!

These are surprisingly delicious.

Preparing for the office Christmas party

"Fruit" salad

On Thanksgiving I taught Robert how to make fruit salad. He had never encountered the concept (“Where do I put the banana?” “In that bowl.” “But that bowl has the pineapple!”). Still, it was a big hit. When we returned from the day trekking chimpanzees, Robert was gone for the night but had laid out Rebecca’s dinner, including this artfully layered fruit salad of mango, pineapple, cucumber and carrot:

Thanksgiving in Rwanda

I managed to turn a day of feasting into a full week here, so I think I’ve done pretty well for myself.

On Tuesday I “catered” a party for GACP’s forest research staff: pizza, bean dip and guac, pudding. We (the researcher Rebecca and I) explained that America is a nation of immigrants who’ve brought their food with them, creating a diverse culinary scene including Italian pizza and Mexican bean dip and guac and English (sort of) pudding. In keeping with the Rwandan love affair with beans, the bean dip was the biggest hit. I think they enjoyed beans that had a little more going on than just being boiled to death.

Wednesday we had a little vegetarian Thanksgiving in the village. I taught Rebecca’s house boy how to make garlic mashed potatoes and stuffing in a frying pan, and talked about the origins of Thanksgiving. When we went around the table to say what we're thankful for, he said "for the delicious food Tuesday and Wednesday."

Thursday I got together with my Peace Corps posse in Musanze and we made a delicious instant Thanksgiving from packages - canned cranberry jelly (also good on muffins the next day, FYI), stove top stuffing with instant turkey gravy and canned chicken, and heavenly Betty Crocker sweet potatoes topped with marshmallows. Friday I stuffed myself until I felt sick at an expat Thanksgiving that included turkeys freshly killed on Wednesday! And Saturday my boss, Rebecca and I had a girls’ night at a restaurant in Gisenyi. Topics of conversation included the difficulties of finding and managing housegirls/boys and email identity theft.

There was also shopping - a quick Black Friday trip to the Musanze market (I got the cutest aprons! $.12 each!) and today while waiting for an appointment I found some nice clothes in the Gisenyi market. Bet you can’t get $11 DKNY jeans in the US, even on Black Sunday (alas if I were a different size DKNY could have been Diesel for $11).

So have no fear, I’ve already started working on my holiday weight gain and consumerist binge, even in Rwanda.

I want to say how thankful I am for my amazingly supportive family and friends from home who spoil me rotten, my wonderful friends and colleagues here, and for being born into such incredible privilege in America.

Kumara masenge

Back in the days when the Rwandan franc went a little further, it was subdivided into 10 amasenge. Baby bananas, more commonly called imineke, earn their nickname kumara masenge, “finish your pennies” because they are so delicious that you can’t help but spend all your change on them.

Nowadays, a bunch of 12 or so skinny ones goes for 150-200 rwf, depending on its condition, the location and your bargaining skills. Plumper bunches go for 300 ($.50).

Note that when bargaining for produce, sellers will very rarely lower the prices on pre-arranged groups of items (bananas, stacks of 4-5 passion fruit or tree tomatoes or oranges, piles of carrots or tomatoes). However a skilled bargainer can get something extra thrown in - convince the seller to part with 6 instead of 5 passion fruit for 100rwf, add more carrots to the pile, throw in a couple little green peppers with the stack of cucumbers. Items like pineapples, papayas, and mangoes can usually be bargained for (and sellers always start with a particularly steep markup on mangoes).

Imbuhu

In the last few weeks I’ve seen people selling bags of strange things that look like seedpods. Finally this afternoon I asked what they were and was told they were fruit. At 100 francs a bag it was easy to satisfy my curiosity. The little seedpods are as soft as leaves and easily rip open to reveal a cherry-like ball. Inside it’s the texture of a cherry tomato, complete with little seeds. The taste is somewhere between a cherry tomato and an actual cherry, with a hint of Thai spices. Pleasant and different. I’d love to see them growing on a tree.

Gorillas Hotel, Musanze: menu goofs

With reasonably priced ($5) and generously portioned pasta dishes and fantastic half-frozen chocolate mouse, Gorillas Hotel may be your best bet for non-Rwandan food in Musanze before 4pm (when Volcana starts serving pizza). The English side of the menu provides the laughs:

Unfortunately neither fish with crazy salad ($7) nor evil shrimps ($17) are in my budget so I can’t tell you if they’re any good. I can recommend the pasta with mushroom, ham and cheese.

Killing a chicken

During language training, I went with Jenny and a few other friends for a dinner visit. We’d bought eggs, cheese and bread, intending to make egg and cheese sandwiches. They, however, had bigger plans.

When I’d visited the previous week the most noticeable changes from 3 months ago when I left Nyanza were how big Teta has grown and the dozen or so chickens running around the backyard, providing a new subject for Bosco’s antics. They keep the chickens in the room adjoining their kitchen, the window outfitted with chicken wire that is impressively if inexplicably electrified (as if the chickens could get through non-electrified chicken wire?).

In our honor, they decided to kill a chicken. I was the only one excited enough to watch, and in fact I’m planning to adopt the med school axiom of “see one, do one, teach one” next time I get a chance. Here are some pictures, not for the faint of heart or vegetarians.

It was roasted a bit before we butchered and stewed it. Below right, Jenny reacts to below left.

The chicken was delicious, even though we didn’t eat until after 11pm.

If you think this is gruesome, I'm still in the Peace Corps Minor Leagues compared to my high school friend St. John who helped butcher a pig in Paraguay! (This post is backdated so yes, that link is in the "future")

Ice Cream in Butare!

I finally got myself down to “Rwanda’s first ice cream parlor” in Butare. First let’s correct a few inaccuracies in the Gothamist article: Rwanda has had excellent (if pricier) ice cream at Bourbon for several years, this “ridiculously warm” country rarely gets hotter than 85 degrees and is usually a pleasant 75, I highly doubt they are locally sourcing processed sugar (and can you make ice cream from branches of local sugar cane?), and diversifying the market for milk-based products is all well and good but a scoop of ice cream costs more than what 60% of Rwandans make in a day and you can’t have an ice cream culture without widespread refrigeration which you can’t have without widespread electricity.

That said, they have decent soft-serve, with two flavors at any given time. Although I’ve heard rumors of mango and chocolate, when I visited there was vanilla and coffee. The vanilla was very milky tasting and the coffee was good but not strong. I’d rather pay a bit more for Bourbon’s richer and creamier offerings. However, you can taste the freshness in the ice cream in a way I’ve never experienced, and for that it’s a must for any itinerary that passes through Butare.

The granola topping is amazing, the banana cake is even better, but the absolute highlight is the real live bagels. I took one home, toasted it, improvised cream cheese from laughing cow cheese mixed with diced veggies and herbs, and enjoyed my first bagel in 6 months.

There were a few groups of affluent Rwandan university students enjoying ice cream when I was there. It was nice to see that the shop is catching on with some of Butare’s inhabitants.

Also, the women are very nice, take pride in their work, and the customer service was far and away the best I’ve encountered in Rwanda. For that alone it is worth the visit.

Rwanda's (in)famous Brochettes

Perhaps Rwanda’s most famous food, brochettes are basically meat on a stick. They’re typically goat, but sometimes fish or beef are available for a bit more money. One brochette costs anywhere from 250-600 RWF ($.40-$1), depending on the place. Some eat them with French fries ($1 and up), but the much cheaper option is two halves of a potato, fried until crunchy, for 100 francs. You can also order them with bananas, below.

Brochettes are unpredictable. Although some bars are more reliable than others, you never know when you’re going to get a delicious tender brochette or one that’s so chewy or fatty as to be inedible. Some bars season the brochettes before cooking them, and of course they’re always served with a bowl of homemade urusenda oil.

Beware. Many Rwandans consider the stomach meat, pictured on either side above, to be the best part of the goat. When I’ve asked why they prefer it, the answer usually is that it’s softer: a tough brochette can be a workout for the jaw. Because of this, when ordering a brochette, it’s important to say “sinshaka inyama yo mundo” (I don’t want meat of the stomach) or “sinshaka zingara.” The meat is called izumubiri.

Brain fruit!

While hiking in Gishwati, I encountered a most delicious and novel fruit. My Rwandan guides in the forest called it umwufe. My coworkers, as we watched the World Cup final and munched on its kernels, said that it's icyufu. I don't know if it has an English name, so I'm dubbing it brain fruit, because that's what it looks like - anyone know what it really is? It's a yellow-brown assemblage of partially edible kernels around what I think is an inedible (or at least unappetizing) core.

To eat it, snap off kernels and suck on them. The taste is a bit like the little sour-but-sweet Chinese cherries. Each kernel has a pit in it, some small enough to eat and others as big and hard as a marble. I ate the slightly stringy fruit inside the kernels and threw out the leathery skin.

Green ones on a tree, and ripe ones on the ground waiting for chimps to eat them.

Toothpicks: Rwanda's national post-meal passtime

Rwandans love toothpicks, or kirida. It may sound mundane, but never have I encountered a group of people who so universally love to use a toothpick after a meal. Be it in a restaurant or a middle class home, you will always be offered a toothpick following your meal, usually one of dubious Chinese origins that may or may not break off between your teeth, joining the goat meat or pineapple already stuck there. The simplest box of toothpicks costs only 100 francs, or less than 20 cents. Boxes typically have little holes in the top (the black area, right) so that toothpicks can be shaken out individually in a hygienic manner.

As usual, I get a kick out of some of the imports from China, particularly the "Delightfully fresh and each Vogue" toothpicks and the "Toothy-Fruity" variety with "fruits flowers" flavor tips on one end (click to enlarge):

Even babies love kirida! This is my adopted host sister in Nyanza.

The toothpick craze helps to explain why middle class Rwandans have such great teeth. For poorer Rwandans, toothpicks and other means of dental hygiene are unaffordable. Compounding the problem, raw sugar cane is widely consumed by the poor, meaning that among the other class divides here there is a clear gap in dental health.

A meal

Fried Rwandan cheese sticks

More fried food.

They were pretty epic, as was my subsequent stomach ache.

Urusenda

Before I came to Rwanda, one of the things I was most worried about was if I’d be able to eat spicy food on a regular basis. As with much of my pre-Peace Corps fretting, this was misplaced. Urusenda (oo-roo-send-ah) peppers are abundant here. (See: my urusenda poppers.)

Usually Rwandan food is prepared without urusenda; some form of the pepper is served on the side. In restaurants, you’ll typically be given a dish of homemeade hot sauce: spicy oil and mashed urusenda. Sometimes restaurants have the packaged version, called Akabanga. The mass-produced stuff has as much of a pop as the name, which means “little secret” in Kinyarwanda, although I find it to have more raw spice and less of a full flavor than the homemade kind. In private homes, you’re likely to be given either the spicy oil mash or a whole urusenda pepper, slightly cooked, which provides ample heat when dabbed several times onto the food on your plate.

The plural of urusenda is insenda, although this form is rarely used. Given how potent insenda are, I find it to be a perfect cognate, across language groups, with "incendiary."

A Rwandan feast: Isambaza and Ubugali

It’s my favorite Rwandan meal: ubugali, which is cassava “bread” (really more like gelatinous sticky stuff) and isambaza, delicious little Kivu fish that you eat whole. Tonight in between World Cup matches (Go USA! It's gonna be a fun one here with ) I helped prepare it for dinner.

To make isambaza and isosi, you first fry the isambaza in oil – it only takes about 5 minutes. Next, pour off most of the oil and throw in onions and green pepper to sauté. Stir vigorously and add peeled, diced tomatoes. Cook over high heat, stirring continuously, and then add tomato paste and water. Then add the fried fish.

To make ubugali, Bring some water to a boil. Reserve some boiling water. Pour in the cassava flour (I have no idea what the ratio should be; Rwandans can just eyeball it) and pour the rest of the water on top. Stir vigourously.

So vigorously that you must remove the pot from the stove (you can stick the isambaza and isosi back on the fire so they’ll be served hot). Prop the pot between your feet and stir with all your strength until it gels and the lumps are mostly gone.

Then scoop the ubugali onto a serving plate and shape it into a round mound.

The serving dishes pictured here are typical; most people own some sort of decorative set that goes from large to small, all with lids to keep the heat in and the bugs out.

Ubugali is eaten with the hands, and middle class Rwandans are thankfully meticulous about washing their hands (using a bucket, pitcher and soap) before eating any sort of finger food. Here’s how it’s done: Pinch off some ubugali and roll it around in your fingers to shape it. Then scoop up some food and sauce as if it’s a spoon, assisting with your thumb.

Goat guts, or today in gross food I choked down

This was lunch at a rural restaurant. It’s one hunk of goat meat and then piece of goat stomach tidily wrapped in intestines, boiled in water. It cost 200 francs - $.35. We also had “mélange” (from “mix” in French):  a plate piled with rice, fries, beans, carrots, local miniature eggplant, or whatever the restaurant happens to have on hand.

I managed to do a respectable job on the boiled goat guts, perhaps redeeming myself for Sunday night, when I only managed a few nibbles of cow leg – a hunk of cartilage and bone, as it turns out, that my Rwandan dinner companions seemed to think was a delicacy. You all know I’ll eat almost anything, but “food” that has no flavor, an unpleasant texture, and little in the way of nutrition isn’t for me.

A recipe: Crepes with Mango Topping

This morning I made crepes with mango chutney topping – a gourmet breakfast in Rwanda!

For the mango topping, I took inspiration from a recipe in the Peace Corps Madagascar cookbook and several online chutney recipes. I like things spicy, so I added some hot-pepper vinegar that I’d used to pickle urusenda (the local pepper).

The crepe recipe comes from the PC Rwanda cookbook; I made a half recipe and it was a huge breakfast for 1. So I’d guess the recipes below will feed 3-4.  Serve with yogurt or a cream sauce, if you have it.

Quick Chutney-style Mango Topping
1 lb mangoes, peeled and cubed
1/4 cup honey
additional sugar to taste
juice from 1 lemon
1 Tbs minced onion
1 Tbs peeled mince ginger
1/4 tsp cumin
pinch cloves
pinch ground corriander (optional)
dash of hot-pepper vinegar or red chili flakes (optional)
raisins or dried cherries (optional)

In a saucepan, combine all of the ingredients except the mangoes and simmer for 10 minutes. Add the mangoes and simmer, stirring occasionally, for 30 minutes. Add raisins, heat through. Serve over crepes, waffles, chapati, etc.

After you’ve added the mangoes, start on the crepe batter.

Crepes
4 eggs, lightly beaten
1 1/3 cups milk (or that much water and 4 spoons Nido Milk Powder)
2 tablespoons butter, melted (or margarine)
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
Whisk together eggs, milk, melted butter, flour, sugar, and salt until it's smooth. Heat a medium-sized nonstick skillet over medium heat. Spoon about 1/4 cup of crepe batter into the hot pan, tilting the pan so that bottom surface is evenly coated. Cook over medium heat, 2 minutes on a side.