Catching up: recent food adventures

On a lighter note, since my last blog entry was more serious...

... I thought I'd briefly post some pictures of recent meals.

I've been food-blog-crushing on Joy the Baker for a while, and when she posted this recipe for Hasselback potatoes I had to try it. Truly revolutionary- and how pretty and fancy do those potatoes look? I pretty much ignored her pesto recipe because we found huge bunches of basil for about $0.25 each in Nairobi, so we've been making massive batches of super-cheap pesto (basil+lemon zest+ lemon juice+pepper+salt+olive oil+local macadamia nuts). But the potato part? Dead on. So yummy. We highly recommend. It's pretty simple (and simpler if you use store-bought pesto but not *quite* as yummy) and looks gorgeous on a plate! 

Remember when I made mole? I brought some chipotle and pasilla chiles with us to Kenya, and have made several giant batches of sauce recently. Nathan recently learned how to make chapatti (which are a common food item here) and quickly altered the recipe to be less oily and made with more whole wheat flour, resulting in: tortillas! Hooray! We've been having lots of chicken, mole sauce, black beans, sukuma wiki, and avocado soft tacos. I'm trying to up my protein intake, ya know, for the baby, and the mole totally does the trick! 

Pumpkin pie. From scratch. I roasted a pumpkin, Nathan magically found condensed milk at a store in Nairobi, and of course I had all the necessary spices. Nathan also contributed by making the crust, since I lack the patience to make pie crust. We made one pie for a Thanksgiving celebration and immediately made another a few days later- and yup, that's real whipped cream! 

Also from Thanksgiving- we hosted one of Nathan's bosses and several of his PhD students and Kenyan co-workers for their first Thanksgiving celebration- we rotisseried a chicken, I made the aforementioned pie, mashed potatoes, mushroom gravy (so good!), and a rice pilaf thing with butternut squash, sukuma wiki (the world's most versatile veggie!), carmelized onions, cranberries (sent from the states!) and balsamic reduction. It was tasty, too. 

This is Nathan's doing. I believe it was in the midst of my first trimester anti-food period, and Nathan took up the slack and did a lot of the cooking. He made potato cakes with (you guessed it) sukuma wiki, cheese, and seasonings, served with a side of lime-and-chili-roasted broccoli. It was amazing and probably the healthiest thing I'd eaten in a month. (Seriously.) 

Somewhat less food-related, but still fun- we celebrated Geemi's birthday on New Years Eve out at Fisi Camp, and I made him his first birthday cake. As far as I can tell, many Kenyans aren't big on sweets, but the cake was a huge hit with at least the American researchers. It was my first layer cake, too... chocolate with raspberry filling and chocolate buttercream frosting. It was incredibly rich and perhaps too dense but the flavors were great. I went through a brief chocolate cupcake phase and I've discovered that adding cinnamon to any basic chocolate batter recipe makes the end result that much better. 

For Geemi's birthday gift, we surprised him with a bee suit- he loves honey and frequently assists people with honey collecting. Until the bee suit, he did it entirely unprotected (by which I mean... he often just wore his skivvies so that he wouldn't get bees trapped under his clothes.) We're hoping the bee suit will prevent some stings!

The other night Nathan roasted potatoes, carrots, and green beans in balsamic vinegar, olive oil, and herbs d'Provence. Totally delicious. I'd never thought of roasting veggies in balsamic vinegar as well as olive oil until we were recently served it at Fisi Camp, and it's delicious. It adds a sweet, earthy, tangy touch. 

One of Nathan's bosses briefly visited a few weeks ago and brought us two giant jars of totally mind-blowingly good Dutch peanut butter. I immediately turned the peanut butter into dessert by dipping it in dark chocolate. We call these creations "Safari Poops" which only makes sense if you know what gazelle and zebra poos look like:

I don't know exactly what animals made all the poops- but the smallest on the right are tiny dikdik poos, and the large ones are zebra poos. The others are assorted ungulate poos, like impala, thomson's gazelle, and grant's gazelle. 

Yes. That's fondue. We made fondue! In Narok! We were pretty excited. We found semi-decent gruyere at the Nakumatt in Nairobi, and some ok sharp-ish cheddar cheese at a dairy in Eldoret. (Long story short: the trucking town of Eldoret in Western Kenya has a dairy which makes cheese, yogurt and ice cream. The cheese ranged from awful (the blue cheese) to ok, and we accidentally (language barrier) bought 2 kilograms (that's 4.4 lbs) of cheddar and Derbyshire cheese.) Anyhow! I turned some of this into a fondue and we gorged. So yummy! In retrospect, I should have burned the alcohol of the white wine off a little better because it was potent. Altogether though, the fondue was a total treat! 

And, who can resist a picture of a cute tiny black backed jackal? They really are surprisingly small- maybe 15-20 lbs or so. This little guy was gnawing on a snack (dead bird, I think?) just off the road and couldn't be interrupted from his meal to run away, so we stopped and watch him munch for a while. 

Catching up: Tanzania

We went to Tanzania a few weeks before Christmas. I'm of mixed feelings over the whole experience, in part because, at the time, I was about 11-12 weeks pregnant and feeling like death warmed over. In retrospect, this was probably not the ideal time for a week long journey (for Nathan's work) into rural northwestern Tanzania.

However, I am glad to have seen Tanzania, and been able to compare it a bit to the area of Kenya that we live in. We were shocked to see how much cleaner most of the villages were- in Kenya many communities are surrounded by trash, strewn about and blowing in the wind. Most communities that we saw in Tanzania were very tidy, in contrast. I'm not sure if this is a relative poverty thing- if those Tanzanian communities were unable to afford to buy items that eventually became rubbish (plastic bags, soda bottles, etc.) or if there is a cultural difference (and these particular Tanzanian communities value tidiness more). Regardless, most villages were pleasant and tidy looking- the countryside is really beautiful.

Another really interesting difference was the number of bicyclists. We've since discovered that there are many towns near Lake Victoria in Kenya that have a lot of bikers, too- but this was our first time noticing a large number of people getting around by bike. Most bikes serve a dual purpose- to carry additional passengers, or to carry various bags/bushes/loads/dead animals/live animals. Most of these areas are pretty flat, making a bike a great way to get around- and it seemed there were tiny bike mechanic shops on every corner in every village. I think more Americans would bike if there were inexpensive repair shops every few hundred meters. (And if it were flat and warm and sunny all the time, but that's another issue.)

Look closely. Yup. Cow legs. 

An impressive walking load. 

I also saw Lake Victoria for the first time. The lake is hugely polluted from the major cities on it, and also has been taken over by invasive hyacinth plants, but is still an impressive sight. There are apparently a ton of tiny fish in it, as evidenced by this market in Musoma (a town on the lake)- a huge swath of unidentified tiny fish drying in the sun. We didn't get a chance to try them- and the lake is so polluted that I'm not sure it would be wise?

Gazillions of tiny dried fish, with Lake Victoria in the background

Market stalls in Musoma, most selling large scoops of tiny dried fish.

The main purpose of the trip was to visit a CARE project site in very rural Mugumu, after attending a meeting in Musoma. Nathan visited a ton of communities that have water projects funded (in part) by his organization. I believe the visit part went well, but we were extremely 'challenged' by the hotel that we stayed at in Mugumu- The Giraffe Hotel (which we do NOT recommend) is the only option for a relatively safe place to stay. Aside from lack of power/water for a large part of the day (not really a big deal), and confusingly muddled service (also expected) the food situation was extremely difficult... and puzzling. Have a look at their menu.

In particular, note our favorite, "Critmas clomourpud cake". Even after asking multiple staff/cooks, we were unable to ascertain what, exactly, this delicacy is. At one point a cook described it as a 'pudding cake with large... you know.. coming up, and sparkling'. Um. Unfortunately, though their written menu was extensive we found after two nights that they only really had goat, ugali, rice, french fries, tea, and noodles served with carrots and green pepper. You can guess what we ordered. (And then waited 2-3 hours for.) (I didn't get a picture, but their menu even offered bagels and bialys. I did ask for them but, shockingly, they were 'out'.)

The biggest mystery is how they wrote their menu- and where they got the idea for 'beatroot' and asparagus with goat cheese. We're fairly certain none of those items has ever been within 200 kilometers of Mugumu. 

WARNING, GRAPHIC: The final challenging part to the whole trip was that it is the time of year when the Kuria tribe, who largely live in the areas we were visiting, conduct their traditional circumcisions. Or, in the case of the females, female genital mutilation (FGM). Boys and girls of around 14 years old undergo this right of passage annually, even though it is illegal in both Kenya and Tanzania. While the boys lose just a bit of flesh (I believe it's a pretty typical 'trimming'), the girls lose a very large part of their genitalia. Without getting too graphic (though I do encourage you to educate yourself), most of these women will have to have their vaginas 're-opened' (with a razor) after they are married to facilitate sex, and then opened further just before birth to allow the passage of a baby. Tanzania, especially this area, has a very high rate of HIV/AIDS, in large part due to FGM and circumcisions, as they often re-use the razors on multiple teenagers. 

As we travelled back from Mugumu to the border, we witnessed countless parades of young men and women and their families, celebrating post-procedure. (We did get a few discreet pictures of the parades but I don't think it's appropriate to share them in this venue.) The boys might be pale and slightly staggering along, but the girls... many seemed as if they could barely walk, with blood soaking their skirts. It was horrible to see. While I do appreciate that the tribe sees these events as a celebration of coming-of-age, marking the teenagers belonging in the community, it is unfortunate that it spreads disease, and causes such pain (and sometimes death) now and in the future. I hope that this matter is something that the Tanzanian and Kenyan governments take a stronger stance on in the future. 

So, as you can tell- our time in Tanzania was both good and really hard. I'm glad for the experience.

Catching up: The Wedding

No, not ours.

A few months ago we were lucky enough to be invited to attend a traditional (we think?) wedding between a Kalenjin lady and a Masai man. Geemi (our trusty assistant) is of unknown relation to the groom, and the wedding took place in his home village. After much questioning, we think that he and the groom may be second cousins once removed, or something equally complicated. Either way, he was tight enough with the groom to feel comfortable inviting two muzungu (white) guests.

We had very little idea of what to expect. We wanted to be sure to be respectful of the occasion and bring an appropriate gift and so asked quite a few local friends what would be acceptable. Everyone said to bring either a set of tea mugs or a 'flask' (a gigantic thermos). I imagine brides and grooms across Kenya receive a lot of mugs and thermoses for wedding gifts. So, gift-wrapped mug set in hand, wearing our best Kenyan outfits, we ventured off to the wedding.

It took place in a very rural community, perhaps 10 kilometers off the main road, and I don't imagine they get many muzungu visitors up there, judging from the amount of attention we received. Geemi was clearly really proud to be accompanied by two glowing white wazungu and we were stared at by approximately 500 people for the next 4-5 hours.

Because we had no idea what to expect, it was fascinating to watch the events of the day unfold. At first, Geemi tried to finagle us a special spot in the shaded covered area that the wedding party and their family were arranged in. We felt super awkward about that and insisted that we should just be treated like one of the regular guests and sit on the grass in the large field surrounding the covered area. (It appeared that perhaps the entire village of 500+ people were there?)

The central covered area sheltering the wedding party and family from the sun.

So we sat, in the sun, listening to the music blaring from the car battery-megaphone-radio set-up that was sharing the music with the entire hillside and surrounding villages. After about an hour, we realized that there was some action taking place (prior to this, all that had happened was people watching us sit down, then people staring at us while we sat.) Two men stood up and started to lead a song (a wedding song?) and the guests quietly joined in, while the men (who turned out to be co-pastors) sang lustily into the microphone. Then we saw the female half of the wedding party approach, decked out in matching peach or turquoise gowns. They moved in a coordinated dance/step procession, slowly approaching the male half of the wedding party who were gathered with family and village elders in the covered area.

It took about 30-40 minutes for the bridal party to crest the hill, cross the field, and enter the covered area, while the pastors continued to lead the guests in (the same) song. While this took place, the assembled guests alternated between watching the bridal party and watching the muzungu.

This is when Nathan and I noticed some peculiar things. First, there appeared to be three brides, as there were three ladies in bright white, lacy wedding dresses. We thought at first that this might be a polygamous wedding and our interest piqued. After some questioning of nearby guests, it turned out that only one of the ladies dressed as a bride was actually a bride, and the other two were akin to special bridesmaids. We thought this was a genius re-use of wedding dresses. The other thing we noticed, and have yet to fully understand, was the occasional plumes of shaving cream that one particular member of the bridal shower occasionally shot into the air, or vaguely aimed at the bride. (See the picture above for an action shot of the shaving cream.) In fact, during the wedding ceremony at random yet seemingly deliberate intervals, the same lady approached the bride and groom from behind and doused them with more shaving cream. No one seemed to bat an eye. We've since asked a smattering of Kenyan friends about this and all say that it's a normal part of the wedding and that the foam smells like perfume.

The one in the middle is the real bride.

Once the bridal party arrived at the covered shelter, the ceremony seemed to start. In actuality, we're not sure when the ceremony actually took place, as the next two hours were spent enjoying a long sermon. For the convenience of the guests, some of whom only spoke Kalenjin, the sermon was delivered in both Swahili and Kalenjin languages. We were pretty impressed by the preacher's translation abilities. The first preacher would heartily (and by heartily I mean holler) preach a sentence or two in Swahili and the second preacher, matching the enthusiastic tone of the first, nearly seamlessly translated to Kalenjin.

The sermon took about two hours. Of very intense shouting/preaching. And slowly came to an end, which is when the real fun started. The preacher (it may have been the village chief or mayor at this point, my mind was a little sun-addled) then gave a greeting to the assembled guests, thanking them for attending, hoping they enjoyed the sermon, and then describing how the wedding meal would be served. (This was all translated to us by Geemi.)

But then. All eyes turned to us (at least, the eyes that weren't already on us) and it was clear that our presence was being pontificated upon by the preacher/mayor chief and the hundreds of guests. Geemi said that our presence was being requested and that we should come to the center of the field and give a speech and present our wedding gift. Oh, dear, awkward.

All eyes on us. 

My Peace Corps training kicked in right as Nathan started to audibly protest. We grabbed our gift and walked across the hot, grassy field, all eyes still trained on us. (Nathan grumbling the whole way.) Geemi took the microphone and introduced us, explained where we were from and that we wanted (wanted??) to give a speech. I took the microphone (Nathan wasn't having it) and blathered our thanks for allowing us to attend, that it was our first Kenyan wedding and we were so happy to be there and hoped the bride and groom would have a long and happy marriage and how welcoming everyone was. Something like that. Then we handed over the gift to the stone-faced bride and groom. We thought that might be all... but no. They wanted pictures. Thus commenced photo shoot #1 of 2, and we spent the next 15 minutes posing with various members of the wedding party (none of whom we'd ever met) before we were released to eat.

Geemi kindly took us on a tour of the compound that we were on- and we were fascinated by the cooking set-up... it takes a lot of beans, rice, potatoes and ugali (a maize paste) to feed a crowd of 500 people. Check out these HUGE pots. I was awed by the ingenious cooking set-up... the networks of coal-pits dug into the ground were able to cook all this food at once.

Largest container of beans, ever. 

While we checked out the outdoor kitchen, the kids were served first (I'm not sure why, I think to maintain more order?), and then the adults lined up. Geemi had really wanted to bring sweets for us to hand out to the kids, and against our better judgement we brought a few packages containing maybe 100 candies. Not nearly enough. Perhaps the most awkward part of the day (for me at least) was being mobbed by probably 200 kids desperate to see the muzungu close up and grab a sweet. It was mayhem and I felt so uncomfortable with it. I'd also brought a bunch of sheets of stickers that my mom sent from the states, and shared those with a bunch of kids- I finally recruited middle-sized girls to hand out the stickers for me and they were able to keep the crowd calmer.

Nathan calls this my Angelina Jolie moment. I call it awkward.

Look at the tiny cute baby peering around her back!

Stickers and sweets distributed, Nathan and I were then taken to a small hut to eat. It was very kind of Geemi to set aside food for us and let us eat in the privacy of someone's house so we didn't have a huge audience. We had some rice, potatoes, and goat meat, and then wandered around some more.

In the foreground are some excited kids (Nathan kept chasing them and scaring the bejeezus out of them) and in the background are ladies lined up for the wedding meal. 

These ladies were helping behind-the-scenes with the wedding meal preparations. The house they are standing in front of is typical of this area- mud and stick walls with a thatched roof. 

Another typical house. We have been trying to figure out the significance of the little spire on top (it seems about half of the houses have them) but aren't sure yet what it indicates.

I thought this baby was totally adorable. The mom was bemused by my wanting to take a picture but I couldn't resist! 

As part of the second photo shoot, we took more pictures with assorted wedding party members, the pastors, the mayor/chief, and other unknown individuals. But our favorite shot was with this lady- she is Geemi's great-aunt (or great grandmother, or step-aunt, or ?) and she was awesome. She is a very old Masai lady with a ton of spirit. She asked us (in Masai) to please bring her an older white guy next time. We liked her. 

After a few more rounds of chase-the-small-children-and-terrify-the-living-daylights-out-of-them, Nathan and I were ready to go. Geemi escorted us out of the field as the entire village looked on. 

Catching up: Fisi Camp

I have to start off by sharing that for the longest time, I thought "Fisi" was spelled "Feces" and couldn't understand why the MSU Hyena research camp was named after poop. But "Fisi" means hyena in kiswahili. I got it now. 

Fisi Camp is my favorite place in Kenya. I think. We have visited a lot of gorgeous places but I have enjoyed my times at Fisi Camp more than any other trip that we've taken.

Nathan met the ladies (Steph and Tracy) of Fisi Camp on his first trip to Kenya and knew I'd love to visit there- at this point, I think we have visited 5 or 6 times? (I can't remember.) Fisi Camp consists of a tiny smattering (three, at this point) of American researchers and some awesome local Masai staff who cook and help out with the multitude of camp chores. Tracy, Meg and Brian, the current researchers, spend their days immersed in hyena-world. Their job is kind of awesome.

When we go to visit, we get to tag along with their various research adventures- starting with morning "obs" (observations) at about 5:30 am, when we pile in the Land Cruiser and bump our way out to the territory of one of three hyena clans. They track hyenas using radio collars, and usually look for them at known den sites or other popular hangouts. Once hyenas are found, they have to rush to identify each individual by their spots. Have you looked at a hyena lately?

They are fuzzy, often mud/blood/poo covered and, to me, they look pretty darn similar. Tracy can look at them and identify them within a few seconds. (Sometimes they have to consult their hyena photo album, but still--it's impressive.) Once ID'd, they note the hyena's behaviors in relation to each other (Murphy approaches Penne and sniffs, Penne tail bristles, Murphy sacks out by the den 10 yards from Penne, Penne eats a scrap and then pastes.) It's fascinating. The research on these particular hyenas (I can't remember how many, I'd guess over 150?) has been going on for over 20 years, so several of the older hyena ladies have been watched by researchers at least that long.

Along the way to/from hyena observations, we usually drive by huge herds of zebra, dozens of giraffes, elephants, lions (part of the job is stopping to watch and count the lions!), varied gazelles and antelopes, Masai cattle grazing inside the Mara, ostrich, secretary birds, vultures, cheetahs, and more.

After morning obs, the researchers return to camp to do paperwork, transcribe their observations, fix the car/solar batteries/tents/etc and other fun duties, like process samples of poop that they've collected from hyenas. Sometimes (rarely) a hyena is found dead, and they have to do a post-mortem necropsy on him/her. Then in the evening, starting around 5pm, is another sunset observation session- same as the morning.

Nathan helping to process poop samples. 

Every time we visit we learn more random factoids about hyenas (they are a matriarchal species- so the female hyenas are dominant, their closest mammal relative is mongeese, males and females have similar looking genitalia: the females have gigantic psuedo-penises) as well as see rare African wildlife- genets, bushbabies, white-tailed mongeese, and more. The researchers are very adamant that hyenas have been portrayed unfairly in Disney movies, and are actually better hunters than lions. They're all pretty protective of the hyenas reputations.

The food out there (yes, I have to mention the food) is really good too. Somehow, their Masai cooks can make eggplant parmesan, stuffed mushrooms, pizza, cinnamon rolls, and french toast out of a small kitchen safari tent.

Visiting Fisi Camp has been a huge stress-reliever for Nathan and I- getting out into the gorgeous Mara, hanging out with some super-passionate and dedicated researchers, watching hyenas do their hyena thing, spotting new wildlife, taking a (much-needed) break from Narok, and falling asleep to the sound of (really loud) fruit bats, hyena whoops, lion roars and wildebeest grunts. It's on the top of my list of things that I'll miss when we return to the states.

Catching up: Mombasa and Christmas, and Starfish Village

A door in Mombasa. 

I admit... I've been super negligent about updating the blog. It turns out that morning sickness lasts all day and is NOT conducive to food blogging, particularly when all I ate from weeks 7-15, for the most part, was noodles, toast, toast with bananas, smoothies, and apples. Whoops. However! I'm going to remedy all this and try to be post-heavy over the next week or two to update everyone on what we've been up to (besides, you know, growing a baby.)

A dad and his daughter waiting for the Mombasa Ferry. (So cute!)

Let's start with our second trip to Mombasa over the holidays. We flew both ways (you recall how we feel about the train) and stayed at the same beach cottages (Sand Island Beach- totally recommend it!) that we stayed at before. (We even hid a bottle of soy sauce and olive oil in the rafters so we wouldn't have to buy new stuff!) We spent the week reading, dozing (in my case), playing in the water, eating fresh fish (in Nathan's case) and otherwise relaxing.

Our little cottage. 

The beach out front at low tide.

Our Christmas breakfast was pancakes with passionfruit sauteed pineapple, and Christmas dinner was a freshly caught baked fish, and sukuma wiki with my number one (unattainable) pregnancy craving: mac'n'cheese. (Friends sent a box from the States, hooray!)

One of the strangest experiences we've had thus far in Kenya took place a day or two after Christmas, when we took a little boat ride to Starfish Village. Take a minute to imagine what that might be. We thought we'd be ferried out to a little spot on the reef where hundreds of starfish magically convene in a village-like formation. (Perhaps with a little Starfish Mayor?) Well, in fact, we were boated out in a hollowed out log to a random spot offshore, where the water was about 1-3 feet deep. Our two guides then instructed us to walk around and collect starfish in order to pile them in one great heap in a central area. It turns out that we were to create the village ourselves. Ok.

Nathan and the guides, mid-collection. 

So Nathan and I wander around with the two guides, collecting gorgeous multi-colored starfish within 100 meters of the boat, and when the guides decided we'd collected enough, they instructed us to take pictures. Ok.

They were really pretty, and the rounded-up-starfish effect was really neat. But apparently the tour guides weren't satisfied with us taking a few artistic shots of starfish in water, starfish in our hands. They wanted posing! So we spent the next 15 minutes modeling with the starfish in awkward ways as the guides piled starfish on us, made starfish jewelry, and otherwise organized starfish on our bodies.

Note that I'm squinting, because the starfish on my head are dripping seawater in my eyes. 

(There's a 14-week old fetus in that belly!)

Yeah. We weren't quite sure what to make of the whole starfish village experience. On the one hand, the guides make enough money posing starfish with tourists that they aren't tempted to capture and dry them to sell dried starfish to tourists. On the other hand, I can't imagine the starfish like being collected and piled on SPF-covered tourists several times a day. Regardless, it was another fascinating Kenyan experience.