FOOD!!!
I’m so excited! I finally was able to make something that tastes almost like it does at home – corned beef and cabbage! Probably a lot of you make it with fresh corned beef, but I grew up with using canned corned beef. I just about jumped for joy the other day at the grocery store when I discovered they actually had canned corned beef. My mashed potatoes were a little weird because I didn’t have any beaters, but I improvised with a slotted spatula and something like a Bamix, and they were at least passable. You should have been here, Tayler, for your favorite dinner!
I think I’ve mentioned before how difficult it has been to cook anything – partly because I don’t have an oven or a microwave – but also because of the food itself. So far, about the only thing I’ve bought that tastes like what we have at home is cornflakes, and I’m starting to get really sick of them! A lot of what I’ve bought, in hopes that it would taste good, has ended up on Samwel and Grace’s table – i.e., wheat flakes, yogurt, crackers, chocolate no-bakes, eggplant. It amazes me that even sugar (large light brown crystals),brown sugar (almost black with large crystals),salt (large crystals), raisens, and vanilla can look and taste so much different than ours!
I am a milk lover, but the milk here is really weird tasting. I put it on my cereal and cook with it, but that’s it. The butter is about like ours, however. I don’t know if it’s because my refrigerator barely gets cold or if there’s something about their cheese, but it doesn’t stay good very long. But then, that’s the case with most everything in my refrigerator. Milk only lasts 2-3 days before it’s sour.
Their eggs are all brown and they store them on a shelf in the store, not in a refrigerated section. The shells look pretty disgusting, so I wash them off with soapy water after I get them home. Even the egg yolks aren’t as yellow as ours – go figure!
Vegetables are the smallest things I’ve ever seen. I bought some mushrooms the other day, and the biggest ones were less than 1” across. I finally broke down and bought a head of lettuce. It was about 3 ½ - 4” in diameter, and the leaves are really tough. Limes are about 1” in diameter. The green beans I bought in a can were even little! It would take almost 3 of their beans to make one of ours! Their avocados, however, are huge. I don’t understand why everything is so little.
I’m dying to make some Southwest chicken soup, but I can’t find green chilis. I want to make taco soup, but I can’t find taco seasoning. I may try to find a recipe for that online and see if I have the spices to make it. I’ve learned that soup seems to be one of my better bets. I’ve made tomato soup twice and cream of mushroom soup. Neither tasted like at home, but both weren’t too bad. I was thinking about make clam chowder, but they didn’t have any clams.
They don’t really have “fast food” restaurants, but the other day, I bought a hamburger and fries at a restaurant. The fries, I’m sure, were cooked in oil that’s been recycled MANY times. The hamburger LOOKED okay, but the catsup looked like runny sweet and sour sauce, and the hamburger was basically raw inside. I tried eating it anyway but finally had to send it back to the kitchen to get cooked more. It came back about the same as before. I didn’t finish eating it!
I think my greatest successes of American food have been corned beef and cabbage, chicken cacciatore, meatloaf, rice pudding, and tuna fish sandwiches (smile).
I have done pretty well with the new Kenyan foods I’ve made – beans, chippoti, cabbage (with tomatoes, onions, etc.), and a turmeric chicken dish.
I’ve decided I’m on a “diet diet” – meaning I’m on a Kenyan diet which is causing me to diet (lose some weight), which isn’t all bad, but I’d really like to enjoy my food more than I do.
The Kenyan diet, as far as I can surmise, is basically beans, rice, chippoti, cabbage, ugali (sort of a cooked white cornmeal) with variations on these items. I’d get pretty tired of that diet in a hurry!
Well, there’s a little bit more trivia to add to your knowledge about Kenya. Hope you enjoyed tonight’s entry.
Kadi
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