july 18, 2010

Hi everyone!
I'm actually writing a second message today, although it may not be sent until late. With this group account, messages are uploaded and downloaded only once or twice a day, so I never know exactly when things are sent.

I thought I'd touch a bit on the foods we're experiencing here. There are, of course, things I like and things I'm not crazy about. The food tends to be pretty redundant. We sometimes have traditional foods including the pancake-like bread called injera, served with several types of stews, called wats. Sometimes they include meat, like doro wat (chicken stew), or tibs (bits of meat that are cooked but not in a stew). There are frequently vegetarian options too, like chickpeas, lentils and split peas. There are a lot of fasting days in the Ethiopian Orthodox Christian church, which means that people do not eat meat on those days until the evening, so there are a lot of vegetarian options.

Meat tends not to be served quite as often at meals here as at home. Fish is a frequent option, though, and is very good. Blue Nile Perch and tilapia are the most common fish options, and I have enjoyed both many times! We eat a lot of rice and vegetables, which are quite satisfying. We have a lot of potatoes, carrots and cabbage. That is a frequent meal when we are on bus trips and have a take-away meal for lunch. Pasta is very popular here, as well. Ethiopia was occupied by Italy for a while, so there are a lot of strong Italian influences, especially when it comes to food. The Ethiopians make Italian food their own, though, with the use of a spice blend they call berre-berre, which is nice and spicy. I'm hoping to find some to bring home with me, because the taste of it has grown on me! Makes a marinara sauce much more interesting!

The fruit is very, very yummy. We have had watermelon the last couple of days, and often mango, papaya, bananas and fresh pineapple. The fruit juices are like nothing I've ever had. I say juice, but actually they are more along the lines of pureed fruit. They have a drink you can order here that they call "mixed juice" and I've started ordering that pretty much any time I get a chance. It is several juices - usually 3-5 different kinds - layered in a tall glass. It is beautiful and DELICIOUS! Usually there is mango, papaya, pineapple and avocado. Yes, avocado. Sounds weird, but as one of the layers, it is really delicious! Last week at Bahir Dar, one of the layers one day was banana, which was a treat, and the guava juice was something we hadn't had before.

Breakfast is pretty consistently eggs - scrambled or boiled, usually. When we're at the guest house they sometimes make waffles. At restaurants and at the guest house, we get french toast, but it is usually deep fried, which isn't as good as what we have at home. Always at the restaurants we get toast and/or fresh-sliced bread at breakfast with butter and marmalade. I feel a little like Paddington Bear with all the marmalade I've eaten.

Bread is a staple at meals. I'm not sure if they serve bread at all meals for themselves, or if they think Americans expect to get bread. The evening we were in Dessie, we ate at a little cafe. I was sick that day, so I didn't eat much, but every single person at the table got a LOAF of bread with their meal, no matter what it was! I ordered plain noodles with no sauce and still got a loaf of bread! Terrible that so much goes to waste when there are so many here who are hungry. We've finally got the hang of telling them "enough" when it seems that a large amount of bread will be served.

The other thing people are figuring out is how to order coffee. I'm a tea drinker and always pretty happy with what I get. When I go to a cafe, it is a special treat to get tea because they spice the water before they fix the tea, and so you get a spicy, cinnamon-y tea with just a regular tea bag! The coffee drinkers have not been quite as lucky because although the coffee is delicious, it is served in itty-bitty espresso cups, and that is usually not nearly enough coffee to suit their needs. It got to be kind of funny - my tea in a regular-sized coffee mug, and their coffee in a cup the size of a thimble! They finally started ordering "coffee in a tea mug" with a lot of milk (always served steamed) to go with it, and then they could kind of make their own coffee concoctions.

I went looking on the computer for pictures to see if someone had a picture on here of the layered juice, but no luck! Instead, I found a picture of the mule ride I've attached. It was clearly taken at the beginning of the ride, because I'm still looking somewhat fresh and relaxed! The young man with me was my "mule-a-teer" whose name was Malisha, or something along those lines. I can only remember because we laughed that our names kind of rhymed.

Until next time...

Alica