14th Dec. Mbare Market and Zim-cuisine

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.

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!