When is a Banana not a Banana?

When it’s Matoke (pronounced ma-toke-ay)

One of the national dishes of Uganda is Matoke. This is a type of savoury banana grown and eaten all over East Africa. To the novice it looks like an unripe, green  banana, but is even more popular here than the familiar sweet yellow banana.

 

 To cook Matoke the green skin has first to be peeled off with a knife to reveal the hard white centre.

The fruit is then wrapped in Banana leaves and steam cooked over a charcoal fire. The pans have to be regularly topped up with water as the cooking process takes about 7 hours.

 

Once soft the yellow pulp is mashed within the banana layer so that it looks like mashed potato or swedes.

 

For simple meals it is then served with a pink sauce made out of peanuts. For a better meal it is served with a range of vegetables, and for a luxury meal there is some meat!!!!

 

 This week, we had a luxury meal!

This week’s proverb from the BBC Africa web-site is from Liberia: “When bad luck calls your name, even a rotten banana can break your teeth”

Time to Market

The nearest town to Kiwoko is Luweero, about 10 miles away. On Saturday Irene and Corrie needed some urgent shopping and so visited the market there.

 

 The first stop was at the vegetable stall. Here there was a variety of recognisable vegetables such as tomatoes and onions, as well as those not usually found in Britain, such as matoke (ma-toke-ay)which looks like a green banana but tastes more like potato.

It is unusual for stall holders to have scales. Instead items such as tomatoes are sold by quantity whilst potatoes are sold by the bucket – Here Irene is buying a quarter bucket.

 

Buying meat is more of an adventure. Chickens are bought live for ‘processing’ at home whilst meat is bought off the bone at open air butchers. Its best to shop early before the meat has had a chance to ‘mature’ in the sun. And flies are no problem!!!!!!!!

 

Finally, after a hard morning shopping there’s always a chance to cool off with an ice-cream at the local ‘supermarket’.

 

Back at the Hospital we also had a different sort of market. Over the months a variety of clothes had been brought out by visitors and left to be sold. On Thursday we held one of our very popular ‘Sales’ where staff, students and villagers were keen to buy clothes, shoes and suit cases. The money will be used for some for the Christian and Children’s ministry at the Hospital.

 

We don’t think it was a homeless clothes moth, but the next day a large moth decided to rest on the frame of Malcolm’s office door – could it be the moth-er of all moths?

 

This week’s Proverb from the BBC Africa web-site is from Zambia: ““A person who sells eggs should not start a fight in the market”