Food

Due to popular demand, here are *some* pictures of food in Uganda



This is the name of the restaurant. No joke. Its called "Chicken tonight". Surprisingly, they serve more than chicken, and based on the reviews of my fellow travels the chicken isn't that great. Some other interesting names of restaurants are: "Tipsy's," and "Obama Take Away Restaurant".



This was the meal I ordered at chicken tonight (they do have more than chicken!). If you thought it looked like an omelette - you were right! Eggs are pretty readily available, so omelettes are on most menus and are cheap (about 50cents). I decided not to be a vegetarian in Uganda, but after walking past the butcheries on a regular basis, I prefer not to eat meat. The cole-slaw stuff on the side of the plate is shredded cabbage (the most commonly served vegetable in Uganda). The long roll is gonja, which is essentially a baked/fried banana - its great if warm and great to buy if you are walking down the street. For breakfast one of the easiest things that keeps for a week is bread and peanut butter and jelly. So i generally have PB&J for breakfast and omelettes for dinner - its quite a meal flip flop.


If you look at the plate behind the one in the foreground, you will see chipati (yes, like the India bread) and gravy. The Chipati is wonderful - I consider it the Uganda version of a pancake. Its warm bread that is heated on a stove with a little oil, making the outside warm and crispy - super tasty. The gravy is a little sketch.



There is an Indian restaurant at Makerere University - its nice to change up dinner because I have rice, beans, sweet potatoes and cabbage almost every day for lunch. Here we had rice and vegetables in a tomato sauce.



You can't see this picture very well - it was dark when we had dinner. I ordered fish and chips. They brought out an entire fish - like scales, eyes, tail, bones etc. It was great, fresh tilapia, but I couldn't really see what I was eating. So, I pulled out my cellphone and used it as a flashlight for the meal - I think the other people in the cafe were laughing at me, but our group of "muzungas" already attracted a lot of attention.



This was my first meal in Uganda! Its a pretty good example of local food: the yellow mashed potato looking part is mashed up plantains, the orange gorde is cooked pumpkin (rare), lots of beans (and normally rice), and the greens are a little bitter and grainy, but good when mixed in with other food. Also, there is a lot of fresh passionfruit/pineapple juice, but there is always a risk that it is mixed with water that hasn't been boiled, so I generally stay away from it.