African Feast

At IU House, we have some very talented people who make us tasy and nutritious meals for lunch and dinner. I have had spinach casserole (one of my favorites), mung beans (lentils and onions in brown sauce), curry chicken, eggplant vegetable skillet, and countless varieties of ground beef in different sauces. One of the chefs, Julius, is also famous for the cakes he makes. My favorite is the mocha cake - he has only made it once. Now that I'm thinking about it, I should ask him to make it again!

But the reason I got into all of this is because tonight, we had an African feast. One of our colleagues at work, Tony, invited us to come to have lunch at his house, which was extremely generous of him. Now, when I say lunch, it is because we made plans to meet at 12pm. In reality, we left to go grocery shopping at 12pm, finished at 1, met Tony at the matatu station at 1:30, and got to his house around 2. When we got there, his wife, Lucy, had already been cooking, and Tony invited us to sit, relax, and visit. We had a great time! Mwangi, Kelvin, Kelly, Jeremy, Gosia, Bhumi and I hung out, chatted, and listened to rock music (Tony's favorite).

Next, Tony taught us how to make chapati, a traditional African thin bread. From scratch, he made the dough, rolled out the tortillas, and cooked them in the fry pan! He and Lucy made it look easy, but I know better - if I were to attempt to make chapati there's no way they would come out as good-looking and tasting!

After the chapati were made, the table was set. I was incredulous at the amount of food, and all the different types! There was stewed beef with white potatoes, matoke (mashed potatoes with mashed bananas), sikumu wiki (dark greens, my favorite!), a cabbage dish, rice, chapatis, mung beans (the best I have had), another beef dish, a tomato-red onion-parsely salad, it was amazing. And the food was so delicious, so fresh; it was the best meal I have had since I have been in Africa. We all chowed down like we had never seen food before. I had seconds. Then, I had thirds. =) We ate until we couldn't fit another bite, then settled in to relax, tell stories, and hang out. We weren't visiting too long before the dessert came out - fresh fruit salad, with mango, pineapple, and bananas. The fruit here is so sweet and delicious, the fruit salads are out of this world. Somehow, we found room. After this, we were ready to burst.

I couldn't thank Tony and Lucy enough. I told Lucy it was the best food I had had in Africa, and she beamed. What an exceptional cook! It was an honor to get to have lunch with Tony and his family, and I'm sure I won't eat like that again!