One of the
hardest things for me (Kenzi) to adjust to here in Kenya was definitely
cooking! While I thought I was prepared to make a lot of things by hand, I
learned that here everything is literally homemade. There is no chicken stock,
salsa, or pancake mix unless you make it yourself. Which is what I have learned
to do. I will say we can go to the American style grocery store that is 1.5
hours away from us to get a few canned goods, boneless/skinless chicken breast
and cake/brownie mixes but they cost 4-5xs as much as they do in the
states. We may or may not buy pancake
syrup for $8 every now and then…
The local
Sokoni (Market) here in town is great! Farmers come from all around the country
on Tuesday and Fridays for Market Day. You can get all kinds of fruits and
veggies. I can usually buy all our produce for the week there for about $5. The
one thing they do not have at the Market is lettuce for salads. I have missed
salads the most here. Kenyans don’t really like raw veggies so just eating a
salad is such a weird concept for them. Thankfully at Nakumatt (the American
style grocery store) I can buy lettuce for a fair price so we have it every
couple of weeks. At our local supermarket called Spear we can get lots of basic
items including eggs. Eggs so fresh they still have feathers on them!
 |
| Spear Supermarket |
In our town,
the Hotels (restaurants) only serve Kenyan food. I guess coming from American I
was spoiled with food from so many different places that I just assumed most
places had a variety of foods. We can’t go get Chinese food in the middle of
the night (which we never did in the states but at least we had the option),
forget Mexican food (most Kenyans don’t like spicy food), and Italian…well
let’s just say I have tried to serve some of our Kenyan friends spaghetti with
meat sauce and they told me that wasn’t food. Needless to say we have been
getting our fill of Kenyan food.
Since moving
here, I must say I have grown a lot in the culinary department. It is a blessing that the internet is full of
great recipes because I accidentally left all my cookbooks back in America! At
home we eat mostly American food. I have learned how to make (homemade) potato
soup, cinnamon rolls, chili, bread bowls, mac-n-cheese, butternut squash
risotto, crescent rolls, broccoli salad, soak and boil beans, chicken noodle soup (with
homemade noodles), pancakes (from scratch-no ‘just add water’ here!) garlic
knots, chicken fried rice, mexican tacos with chipati bread (like a thicker tortilla), pizza (including the sauce -which I learned how to make a whole pizza
from scratch a few years ago so this isn’t really new but still noteworthyJ).
We also get our milk straight from the cow so I have learned how to
boil, strain, and store the milk.
Each week I
decided I would try to make two knew recipes. I have actually really enjoyed
playing in the kitchen. I learned that
cooking or baking is a big stress reliever for me. Plus, when the food taste good then there is
one less thing I have to worry about J
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