FOOD: I wouldn't describe the food here as delectable. It never tastes bad, but couldn't be called inspiring, either. Every meal is based around a starch staple. A favorite is matoke, which is made of boiled, mashed banana and is pastey in texture, but not sweet. It tastes best when warm. Posho, a white polenta-like staple made from finely ground white corn is also common, but is very bland and the data manager in our office refuses to eat it because it was served with every meal at boarding school. That pretty much sums up posho. I had it once, and don't see the point when other options are available. Cassava, sweet potatoes, white rice, and Irish potatoes (usually truncated when ordering to just "Irish") are the other common staples. All can be ordered with "g-nut" (aka groundnut, aka peanuts), beans, peas, or meat (beef, chicken, fish, goat). G-nut is surprisingly good, and brightens up the staples. My favorite combo so far is beans, peas, matoke, and rice, with some g-nut added in. Now, the fruit situation here is a whole different matter. The pineapples are the best on the planet, and a bargain at 50 cents for a large one and 30 cents for a small one. Avocados the size of papaya are everywhere (my grandpa would have loved Uganda just for that), as are mango, papaya, bananas... There's a young man who sells pineapple on the road in front of the hospital, and I'm always on the lookout for him. Aah, and African tea! Quite delicious. Tastes like Chai, and very rich since it's made with whole milk and not water. I prefer to make it with both milk and water, and a little lighter on the sugar than normal.

The food situation at my guest house is wonderful. I have my own kitchen, and am regularly harvesting basil from the garden to make pasta with tomatoes and basil. The garden is also awash with celery, parsley, swiss chard, corn, a Nigerian green whose name I can't remember, dill, mushrooms... quite the feast. Nneka is my host, and her elderly Nigerian aunt loves to cook. I suspect she's trying to fatten me up, so she's always feeding me wonderful items like chicken soup and greens with mushrooms. Nneka herself is a fantastic cook, with a pineapple upside down cake to die for. She whipped up a quick "casual" meal for some Nigerian friends the other day that consisted up the aforementioned cake, a delicious tomato-based beef stew, rice with carrots, fried plantain, and greens with mushrooms. Yum yum.

Of note, everything- from veggies to meat to dairy- can be bought fresh. When we made chicken for some dinner guests, we bought live chickens, slaughtered and plucked them, and cooked them up. It's definitely more work than Safeway, and my carving skills leave a bit to be desired, but fresh chicken can't be beat.

I almost forgot!!!! You can buy a bag of about 15 passionfruits for 50 cents. Passionfruit juice is delectable, straight from the gods. Spoon out the fruit, stick it in a blender with some water, and finally sieve it with sugar to break up the pulp. Voila! Fresh passionfruit juice. That, my friends, ends my food post.