Food part I

I love to eat and food is often times such a large part of a cultural experience that I will probably have a series of posts on here dedicated to edible things.

For our first three weeks of training, we were fed completely by our host families.  Breakfast usually consisted of some combination of lesheleshele (sorghum porridge), huge slices of bohobe (bread), with the tiniest amount of peanut butter on it, fried eggs (with an absolutely ridiculous amount of aromat- msg with some seasoning in it), a bowl of cornflakes, and/or hardboiled eggs.  Lunch was usually rice with chicken and some vegetables such as moroho (spinach/chard/cabbage chopped very finely), mokopu (squash or pumpkin), or beets.  Dinner varied significantly because Peace Corps had a menu for what we were to be given, but it almost certainly involved papa, which is a substance made of maize meal that is perhaps best described as stiff, dry, bland mashed potatoes.

My personal favorite is still lesheleshele which I continue to make most morning for my breakfast.

The lesheleshele is smiling!

Things got significantly less Basotho after we started cooking for ourselves.  “Ghetto thai”, baked potatoes, and fried rice were some really good nights for Amanda, Cassie, and me, but I think our crowning moment was our Mexican night.  Absolutely bomb.

Mexican Night

Ghetto Thai

Since I am now living in a decently  isolated village, I’ve become somewhat less adventurous in my cooking, due to my lack of food resources.  However, I have managed to produce macaroni and cheese, biscuits- which were originally supposed to be pancakes, but oh well, and a wide variety of soups thanks to Knorr’s soup mixes!

Egg with two yolks!!!!!!!

Mac and Cheese at site

Mexican Night at site