Oh Golly, Ugali!

For those unfamiliar with East African cuisine (so most of the world), a major staple of their diet is a white finely ground corn meal porridge (very dry) called ugali. I admit, on my last two trips to Tanzania I approached ugali with a very high level of general dislike. Oh how wrong I was. Really good, properly made ugali is an amazingly delicious accompaniment to Swahili food. It is the Swahili polenta!!! For those of you who've been there with me in these ugali situations, we were eating bad ugali and we didn't know what we were doing!!! The other day after one invitation to eat ugali, followed by insistence from Joshua, I learned the right way to eat ugali. Levino, head of security, pulled up a chair for me at the table the guys had commandeered for lunch, and Boni taught me, the guest of honor, how to correctly approach ugali. Luckily I had made my special sauce for lunch anyway! It was one of those really awesome cultural experiences, I was so included and they were all so happy to see me enjoying what, for most Tanzanians, is their favorite food.

So my dears, this is the right way to eat ugali - you should all try it. First, you add a ton of maize meal to hot water and let it sit. Stir vigorously after a few minutes before adding more maize meal. Continue to stir and sort of whip the ugali until it is very thick, basically solid and thoroughly cooked. Turn the pot over onto a large platter and use a knife to cut of big hunks. The guys here seriously eat pieces about the size of a small loaf of bread at every meal (well not breakfast, that is almost half a loaf of actual bread). Ok, so then you have a bowl of some tomato-saucey food, perhaps chicken or some other choice meat, or rather meaty bones, or in my case my own homemade original recipe of "Mboga swahili" (vegetable swahili, the veg of choice being cabbage). So now you have your sauce and your ugali. Grab a smallish ping pong ball sized hunk of ugali and squeeze. Careful, right hand only please! Alternate squeezing and rolling for a least three rounds of the process. The ball should get softer and more cohesive as you go. Finally make a small indent into the ball using your thumb and use your little scoop to dip up some sauce. Use your thumb to hold any small bits of tomato or onion in the sauce in the little scoop, pop it into your mouth and enjoy your tasty morsel. Then take a stab at your meat if you have some, just grab and nibble. Repeat process! Yum! And in the words of Isiah (boat guy) and Joshua, "Karibu ugali!" Welcome (help yourself) to the ugali!

Love,
Sara