October 22 photo assignment: some foods here in Tanzania

Our household worker makes a few main dishes for the workers' lunches everyday:  beans and rice, a stew made with meat and ugali (fried balls of maize flour and oil).  While these foods are certainly edible, my impression of Tanzanian food is that it's fairly bland and oily.  It's a bit disturbing to see how quickly we go through a 5-liter jug of oil.

Luckily, Dar es Salaam has a significant Indian population, and so many places carry fresh spices. I've learned to make a few curry dishes, which are delicious.  Another good street food which I've had a couple of times is chipsi mishkaki, which is basically a beef kebab with fries.  Tasty and super cheap (less than $2).

One of our favorite ways to cool off is to freeze a triangle-shaped juice box and eat it like a slushie.  My favorite flavor is mapera (guava), pictured below.  The kids are big fans of the mango.

We are also big consumers of peanuts.  They are way cheaper here than at home - about 2500 Tsh per kilogram, which translates into something like 70 cents per pound!  Unlike back home, this is a do-it-yourself process:  the peanuts are purchased raw and must be roasted before eating.

One funny thing here is that in the Western-style grocery stores there is a brand called "American Garden" to give us expats a taste of home.  Two things which are pretty different here are Tanzanian ketchup (it's more pink than red, and runnier) and peanut butter (the African version has a different texture and is not sweetened).  The "American" versions of these products still don't get it exactly right, but are much closer:

I love how the ketchup is "born in the U.S.A."  I couldn't tell if these products are actually produced in the U.S. or not.  They are certainly much more expensive than their Tanzanian equivalents!