Food in Botswana

(This is Part 3 of my account of our trip to Botswana, Africa - you can read Part 1 and 2 in my previous posts)

So it's time for a confession: I did not take enough photos while in Botswana. This is all I have on the food. How I regret it!

Soghum (like a thick paste of oatmeal) with a vegetable puree. Soghum is a staple in Botswana.

At a Nando's restaurant which is famous for its chicken grilled with various seasonings. Did you know Nando's originated from Africa? This is what Google says:

"Nando's is a casual dining experience originating from the Mozambiquan Portuguese community in South Africa with a Portuguese/Mozambican theme."

Peaches. Would you believe they even had grapes over there, with such a hot climate?
We also had fat cakes - (sorry, no picture) they are actually balls of dough made up of flour, salt, and sugar, deep fried in oil. They tasted nice but the name itself put me off each time I ate one. I just felt fat while eating them. Maybe if someone had called them slim cakes, what a different story that would be. Just goes to show how important a name is, doesn't it?



Worms (already cooked) which is favoured by some. My husband brought some back and enjoyed distributing and daring others to eat these. Someone said it tastes like ikan bilis (anchovies) but with a grainy texture. I'll just take their word for it. Suddenly, the thanksgiving prayer some people say before meals (as a joke) takes on a literal meaning: "Rub-a-dub-dub, thanks for the grub"!

And I couldn't resist taking a video of Esther making palichee - this is another staple in Botswana that is eaten with other dishes like vegetables or meat. It comes in a powder form. Here are two halves of my amateur attempt at taking videos. In the first one, I had mistakenly thought Esther was about to make soghum, but she was actually making palichee. Man, this takes brute strength! And she made this almost every day.





We also had seswa, which is beef boiled for many hours over a wood fire, then pounded to shreds. It tastes much like corned beef. Boago's Dad made us a whole lot to take back and we enjoyed eating it for days after our return.

And now for a bit of craziness. The family got the neighbour's permission to take us for a donkey ride! See how the donkeys were a little disorientated in the beginning until Tammy stood up. I think it helped balance things up.


On coming back after a large round around the neighbour's compound, the donkeys could actually speed and Tammy's holding on for dear life. Hilarious! You can hear the neighbourhood kids screaming in excitement in the background at these crazy foreigners!

Now what have these two videos have to do with Food in Botswana (the title of this post), you ask?



psst. Did you know some Africans actually eat donkey meat?

I know right?

Altogether now......

NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

sob.

The Scent of a Man

Ok, so you guys have GOT to try this! I discovered that you can actually make deodorant!
Waaaaaaaait! Don't stop reading and start thinking, "This time she's really gone off her rocker".

Like you probably are also, I was apprehensive when I heard about it. But after reading much on the subject, I thought, "what could I possibly lose?"

What's more, I read that store-bought deodorants usually have harmful chemicals in them. And they could stain your clothes. And you pay much more for them. Ok, so those reasons are not in order of importance. (But neither are the discussion points in a political meeting brought up in order of importance. Or so I heard.)
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(you're thinking about the relevance of that one, aren't you?)

WOOHOO! YIPPEE! WAKA WAKA! YAHOO! GOOGLE and what have you! It works!

Proof: my husband has been using this concoction that I whipped up for him, for about three months now, and he has no complaints at all. And I have none either (bear in mind I am closest in proximity to him every day - and night). We've even been going hiking of late, which really brings out the sweat in us, and still there are no untoward after-effects, if you know what I mean.

Why was my husband picked for this experiment? Cos he's always game for anything that saves him money I try out. He's my biggest supporter like that, y'know.

Sometimes.

I mean, SOMEtimes...


I had to look high and low for the proportions again because, as usual, I forgot where I got it from - maybe Google, maybe Pinterest, maybe another blogger...

Here goes:

5 tbsp. of extra virgin coconut oil
1/4 – 3/8 cup of baking soda
1/4 – 3/8 cup of cornstarch
Essential oils (optional)




This is the coconut oil I use, and no, they don't pay me for saying this. pfft. Don't be put off by this ingredient - it does have a mild fragrance which you may or may not like, but it actually gets toned down with the addition of the other stuff. I buy this in the cosmetics section at Mydin (where else? I live practically next door to Mydin). It costs a little over 9 ringgit but don't forget, you only use 5 tablespoonsful of it.

The cornstarch can also be substituted with arrowroot powder..which I have no idea is what and very likely neither do you, so I shouldn't have bothered with this sentence of 34 words and 3 numbers.
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(you counted, didn't you?)

The essential oils (the suggestion was for tea-tree oil) I didn't bother with, because I didn't know where to get any. And as we have found out, it is unnecessary. It says optional in the ingredients list anyway. Then why call it essential, huh? huh? Really!

Just use a spoon and mix all these ingredients up in a bowl - it's that easy!




You should get a paste-like consistency. If you don't, just add more oil if it is too dry, or more cornstarch if too wet. The consistency should be like....KFC's mashed potatoes. I don't think Colonel Sanders will mind if I say this, do you? Hey, I'm helping people with their personal hygiene!

My first batch I put into a glass jar with a lid and my husband applied it under his arms with his fingers. Then I read of one lady who actually emptied her roll-on deodorant and filled it up with this paste. Hmmm...does that mean I should actually buy a roll-on one now since we haven't been getting any for some weeks already?

This batch I've put into above mentioned KFC's mashed potato takeaway plastic tub. By now Colonel Sanders should love me...I recycle.

Now that I've made a new batch just for this blog post, and my husband still has a lot from the last (first?) batch....does anyone want to try this out? Just be sure to label it. Or someone might think it's you-know-what and eat a glob of it. You can have the fun of choosing your own label for it. I think I'll call mine...

Oh, you help me with a name. I can't think anymore.

F1 Drivers' Dilemma

So a group of us was having lunch when the topic was the Formula 1 race about to take place the next day.

the ear-shattering sound the car makes as it rounds a bend...make sure you wear ear plugs....260km per hour...flameproof overalls, boots...stamina, endurance...






It was all blah blah blah to me. The swirling egg in my kong foo chow blowing kisses at me was more interesting....

At first.


Then PaulV was saying:

the drivers wear diapers...

and that,of course, made my drooping ears go

b o i nnnngg!

you mean they don't have pee stops? my eyebrows are looking at him now.

how can you have pee stops if you're in the middle of an F1 race?





but it's just a short race what....why do they even need to pee?

it's a short but very STRESSFUL race....sweat...fluids lost...blah blah..


...he lost me at diapers.




ewwww.. just like a man not to be able to hold it all in. On a long drive, I know some men who wriggle and wiggle and squirm (with such sinuous hip and abdominal movements that would put Shakira to shame. yeah, and Hips Don't Lie.) waiting for the next petrol station, rest area, any building that looks like it has a toilet in it....only to stop at the next



tree.



To pee.



Then they give you that Tom Hanks face, the one after he. let. it. all. go. in Green Mile.

In this movie however, he had an acute leaking problem and was relieved he could go without pain after such a long time of suffering. You've got to love that face! especially at 0.32...






I'm glad I'm a woman. No woman will stop at no-tree, no-sir, for no-nothin'. uh-huh. Apart from the fact that we are the more environmentally-friendly gender, we'd rather let everything crystallize inside there, than do something so beneath us. hmmph.



* the writer says that she looked up google to find out what exactly an F1 driver does if he needs to take a leak and there were various theories given...pee in their pants...one even pooped apparently...wear a gadget that collects the fluid...wear diapers...they don't pee at all...so the question remains in her mind. are there pee stops during pit stops?


(one Starbucks treat for the best caption for the photo above)