14th Dec. Mbare and Zimbabwean Cuisine.
Mbare is considered the poorest neighbourhood in Harare but has the biggest
Zimbabwean vegetable market called Mbare Msika where farmers offload their
produce and shop keepers and restranteurs come to collect their daily supply.
There are three sections, surprisingly well organised: small
informal stalls on the dirt, formal concrete floored and sheltered stands for
bigger vegetable vendors and a large flee market selling a variety of goods
from electrical to coal -fired irons, clothes and accessories.
One isle stretching for about 2m on either side is
completely devoted to traditional medicines. Potions of all kinds are on offer.
However most vendors are quite cagy and nervous about speaking to us or giving
us permission to take pictures. Paul tells us they are fearful of the coming
elections and can't be seen to be fraternising with non-locals.
One witch -doctor however generously obliges,(I’m guessing his
brand of magical power affords him a level of bravery not offered by others) and
explains that the 7 jars of different coloured, multiple- textured
powders on display are mixed to form an orally administered aphrodisiac for
men. I ask if there is an equivalent for woman upon which he shiftily
rearranges his mystical paraphernalia and digs out but 1 small jar only a
quarter full of chalky looking powder. I joked that women need more help
than men do to get them in the appropriate mood. Paul repeated this in Shona
(the language of Harare and the rest of the Mashonaland region) to which he just laughed.
Other remedies included a slimy sludge of tree bark extract for STDS, porcupine
spines for ear ache and crab shells for fontanel issues in babies.
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| The Witchdoctor. |
Local Cuisine: A word of warning: as a dedicated nutritionist
and food-lover I may go over the top on this topic!
LGs childhood favourite, Mathimbi are on sale here. These are dried caterpillars
which are cooked by soaking in water then frying with onions and tomatoes ( the
basic cooking method for all dried foods including the various dried leafy veg
and dried cauliflower, which can be further enriched by blending with a table
spoon or more of peanut-butter during cooking. Lots of salt is added to almost
all Zimbabwean dishes but this is offset by the pure salt-free taste of sadza (
porlenta equivalent but Zimbabweans prefer it white and purified. )
Deliciously savoury, these sadza dishes are the daily diet ,
twice a day in many cases, and meat which prior to stewing, must be fried to a
dark brown crisp (gaucharred). Meat
intake simply increases with wealth. Unsurprisingly prevalent health
trends include increased death rates from high blood pressure, stroke and type
2 diebetes, mainly in woman as reported by all of the 10 families of African
decent, that we visited.This trend is exacerbated by the pressure from men for
their women to be large and voluptuous. Gail's grandmother when diagnosed
with high blood pressure had the will power to reduce her intake of salt and
refined sadza. She is now a very slender centenarian.
I have tried whenever possible to give advice on affordable yet sound nutrition, such as encouraging the adding of peanut-butter
or milk to maize meal porridge where the practice is to feed children the
porridge as a refined watery, sugary mixture, (get further information on
protein quality of maize from http://advances.nutrition.org/content/2/3/217.full)
and
suggested stretching limited meat supplies by mixing with beans and other
vegetables cooked in the usual way. ( You guessed it... Italian style, but
well-gaucharred and unfortunately
thoroughly salted but without the basil and garlic!)
Beef is arguably the
favourite meat but chicken apart from being the most popular take-away food, is
served with sadza and on special occasions with rice and potatoes. Also on the
menu are offal of various kinds, chickens feet and pigs trotters (curried in
the homes of mixed race Zimbabweans). Nothing is wasted.
Other sadza accompaniments include derere leaf or occra
boiled to a slimy consistency, served with a fresh chilli pepper. By far
the most popular vegetable is chimolia or muriwo which is a must-have crop in
the garden of almost every self-respecting Zimbabwean. I have tried to
replicate the stir-fried flavour of this vegetable using British greens, but it
just isn’t the same. British greens lack
that distinct pungency which goes so well with sadza.Pumpkins are also grown
not just for the fruit but for the leaves which are as soft as spinach and when
cooked with peanut butter , make for a delicious and highly nutritious side-dish
or vegetarian main. It is important here to mention that comfortably well-off Zimbabweans generally don’t choose to be
vegetarian. It is thrust upon them by
the ‘cruel hand’ of poverty, the same hand which ensures that these underappreciated
yet remarkably tasty ‘ peasant dishes’ provide the more superior health
benefits. (A paradox which seems to repeat itself the world over).
Desert may come in the form of chilled home-made curds and whey
or Lacto (the shop-bought version) with
sugar and hot sadza (sometimes served as the main course). My children have come up with a western
adaption of natural yoghurt with crunchy brown sugar and unsalted polenta or
sadza. The mouth-watering contrasts of hot/cold , sweet/sour, crunchy/ smooth are a definite hit! Indigenous Zimbabwean snacks include a breed
of termites, captured from swarms around light bulbs on rainy nights, nyimo a
boiled slightly sweet and starchy round bean, its delicate seasonal flavour is
appreciated enough to serve it unsalted for a change! This time of the year (December)
yields a harvest of locally grown roasted peanuts, sweet-potatoe (served as a
sweet snack it is more starchy than British imports), varieties of sugar
cane, maize, often roasted on an open fire and sold at roadsides like
chestnuts. All year round, maize is sold in different forms, including a snack
called maputi (puffed salted and peppered maize), samp (dried maize,soaked
overnight, boiled and seed cases skimmed
off. Samp is usually served with milk and sugar. Dried and peeled maize seeds
are also broken up into small pieces like bulgar wheat then cooked and served with
stew, in lieu of rice.
In terms of a more western pallet , Africanns cooking influences
are popular. More on this on the South African trip next week. Suffices to say
here that the array of exotic fruit hanging off trees are unfortunately
late in ripening, depending on the part of the country that have received rain
so bananas, guavas, Mexican apples, lychees, papaya, mangoes,
watermelons and peaches are widely available to buy and fruit salad is our most
popular choice of breakfast to eat alfresco in the heat. I am however
obsessed with plucking fruit straight off the tree, for that fresh, feisty
flavour and crunchy texture so I hope for better luck in South Africa.
Urban Zimbabweans occasionally add chilli, garlic and other
herbs to the stew and on special occasions will have accompaniments like rice,
fried potatoes, and butternut squash. They were originally introduced to
hot spices by the local Indian population who have had an even greater
influence on Mixed-Race Zimbabwean cuisine largely shared by the South African
mixed race culture.
So when visiting a mixed race
family, mostly you might get curry served with rice or bread or rotie,
and less frequently a sadza dish and occasionally fried or gortcha’d (I’ve
tried spelling this in different ways on different blog posts in the hope that
one of them will be right!) meat , often including boarevoars (more about that
later) or other western dish. The barbeque is once or twice a week, with lots
of borevores and t-bone steak pork chops and chicken, just salt and pepper to
taste. Not a single marinade in sight as the meat has so much of its own
flavour and of course the bri is a skill which the English have not quite
mastered but here they get all the meat cooked and charred to perfection with
pure woody, smoky flavours sans lighting solvents etc.
Peanut Power
This section
would be far from complete, if I did not extol the virtues of peanut-butter,
used to spread on bread and cook dovi dishes (similar to Satays) and popular
amongst Southern and Western Africans. Why therefore in God’s name anyone would
want to add East African palm-oil to a product which is clearly not native to
East Africa, befuddles me. It’s like frying a meal for a committed vegetarian
in beef dripping! Peanut butter has traditionally been homemade
by rural Zimbabwean folk for generations by pounding dry nuts in long wooden
vessels with a matching long pounding rod,
(like a giant elongated wooden pestle and mortar). Some like the peanut
butter raw and therefore pale coloured but my preference is to have it
milk-chocolate brown from dark roasted,
salted peanuts. Characteristically the peanut oil separates into a top layer
and upon opening the jar, one has to mix it back into the peanut paste. The
full-on intensity of the pure roast-peanut flavour should never, in my opinion be sacrificed
because of the need to sweeten an otherwise savoury paste (which, by the way
still lends itself beautifully to the American peanut-butter and jam combo,
PB&J) or emulsify it, in order to get an homogenous texture and increase
its shelf-life. In responding to
pressure to cut out hydrogenated fats and palm oil from manufacture
foods, Tescos has recently plucked up the courage to introduce unemulsified peanut
butter. I was delighted to see large jars of it sitting proudly on their
supermarket shelves, complete with the separated layer of oil on the top. To
that I’d say “Bravo”....but for the tiny niggling fact that they’ve included a
small amount of cheap vegetable oil to ensure an even softer spreadable consistency.
Unfortunately this diluted version lacks the peanut punch and therefore fails
to inspire. Who on board the plane back, could therefore blame me for carrying
a few jars of the divine food: proper
unadulterated Zimbabwean peanut-butter which my brother and I had been pouring
onto our bread rolls on a daily basis, delighted to still be able to find it tasting
just the way it always did!
