I have had a lot of people ask me if I am the kind of person who just jumps right in and tries new things. To be completely honest, I am not. I am more of the let's-learn-how-to-do-this-before-we-try and could-you-go-first sort of person. However, the one thing I do love to try new things with is food. In college, a common after shopping trip conversation would go as followed: "Oh, you bought x. What are you planning on doing with that?" "Oh that's what I bought? I didn't know what it was so I figured I would get it to try!" My family is also familiar with my habit and have become slightly wary of allowing me to try out new recipes on them, especially if one of the ingredients is fish sauce.
However the love of trying new food does come in handy when living in a new country. I have always said I'll try anything once (with the exception of blood). So far here are a few of the new dishes that I have had the opportunity to enjoy.
This country is a wonderful mish-mash of many different cultures thanks to its small size and excellent location. Whether from refugees or voluntary foreign expatriates, everyone brings their favorite food. Here you can get pizza and burgers, as well as French pastries, Asian noodles, Middle Eastern shawarma, Indian curries, Kenyan chapatti, and of course the local favorites: pasta!
One of my teammates is from a neighboring country and we often get to enjoy food from her home such as doro watt, shiro watt, tibs, and injera. She always says it is not as good as at home but I really enjoy this type of cuisine. However, it can get spicy. They have a red powder which is called met-met and it gets really hot, especially in the shiro watt, a sauce made out of ground chickpeas and red lentils. This spice is also excellent on ketchup!
For anyone who knows me they know that there are few foods that I despise and cannot stand. One of those foods is ketchup. Too many trash runs cleaning up a local park after picnics in the summer! Yet, here I have found a ketchup that I like. It comes from the street stands where you can buy fries. You buy a 100 franc worth of fries and they put them hot into a small plastic bag. Then they squirt in a liquid-y ketchup-like sauce and add met-met. It is a great "dinner" before class at 7pm, especially when I have spent the whole day in town working in the school and library.
Most of the other "street" food I really enjoy are also fried. There are sambusa, their version of samosa often filled with lentils and spices and fried. Bajiya- a dough ball made from a paste of water and black-eyed peas and fried. Khamiir-a cake-y doughnut-like bread that is fried (and often served with a spicy red sauce that while tasty has made me sick every time I try it). And of course, there is shawarma. This is served on Eastern Africa's version of a baguette called furum cut in half and filled with chicken, mayo, mustard, hot spices (metmet), tomatoes, and fries. I have never eaten as many fries at home as I do here, something that makes me chuckle.
But that is just the bonus food that I have enjoyed. What does the average person here eat on a daily basis? To be honest, I am still learning. Every time I have local friends over I learn a little bit more about what exactly they eat, mostly from their frozen smiles and polite questions about "What am you making again?" or "Do you know how to cook?" when I serve food. However, from what I have learned, I will impart to you.
Breakfast or quraac is usually eaten early around 6am before kids go to school and adults to work. A common breakfast is laxoox, a thin pancake bread made out of a sour bread-like dough. It is usually dipped in tea made from black tea and spices including cinnamon, cardamon, and clove and lots of sugar and milk. Small children or infants might eat porridge, their name for what I would call oatmeal. In a café, where primarily men go for breakfast (since women are busy at home with the kids) you can also order kidney, omelet (which looks more like scrambled eggs with vegetables), or foul (a bean dish eaten with furum)
Lunch or qado is pasta and sauce or chicken and rice or rice and sauce. By sauce, think your traditional tomato spaghetti sauce. Then take out any Italian seasoning; add cumin, garlic, onion, and hot pepper. Instead of meatballs, add a can of tuna. If you have no tuna, potatoes are an okay alternative. An extra special meal might include a roasted fish fillet, instead of tuna. Serve on top of a plate of spaghetti or macaroni noodles, garnish with mayo and a banana, and eat with your hands. I am still learning the art of eating pasta with my hands. Macaroni is definitely the easiest for me, followed my spaghetti and then rice, but I make a mess every time!
Cuwaf or bajiya time is like their version of afternoon tea and lasts from 4pm to 6pm. This is when you can find mamas on the streets selling all the delicious fried foods such as sambusa, bajiya, and khamiir. You can also find a bread that is similar to India's paratha or Kenya's chapati, called sabaayad. Occasionally when I stay all day in town, I will get sabaayad with nalo (egg) and hawesh (vegetables) for dinner before class as an alternative to fries.
Dinner or casho is late. I usually eat between 7pm and 8pm, but locals can eat closer to 9pm. The meal consists of furum (baguette) and lentils or haricot (white beans) or foul (fava beans). I think this is probably my favorite of the meals. I could eat it at any time of the day, which has earned me a few strange looks.
So far, I have enjoyed all the different types of food that I have been able to try. I have enjoyed even more the conversations and experiences I have had making and eating the meals with friends and in local restaurants or friends' homes.