Mmmm Mmmm Good

The food, I must say, has been fabulous. Each day during work, we’ve been treated to a traditional Ugandan lunch, served at the ILI where we’re teaching. The dish served at each meal is Mootoki. It’s essentially green bananas, mushed and cooked inside of large banana leaves. It’s a little sweet, and it’s the basic starch staple in the diet here. I prefer mine with a local nut sauce, also served daily. At each lunch they also have served rice, beans, fried banana slices, potatoes (cooked in a variety of ways), and quite often pumpkin and sweet potatoes. Two different meats have been served each day—usually a beef dish in addition to either fish or chicken.

As for other food, we’ve enjoyed a wonderful variety. Monday night we went to Fang Fang and had delicious Chinese food. Unfortunately, when the waitress asked if we wanted our chicken dish mild, Mimi and I looked at each other and agreed medium would be good. We both figured that we both like spicy food, and suspected the waitress assumed we did not. I also figured that if something is served medium, there’s room for it to be hot and even extra hot. We were wrong—on both counts.

Yowza! This stuff was HOT. But wonderfully flavorful. The shredded green beans, though, were fabulous on all levels. If you’re ever in Kampala, go to Fang Fang (the one in the office building, not the one outside of the city), and have the shredded green beans. Yum-mie.

Tuesday I had the best Indian food I’ve every had at Haandi. Oh my goodness—it was fabulous! This restaurant is also in an office building, situated on the second floor, which gives you a nice view (as was Fang Fang). We had Naan, of course, and tandoori chicken, but the best was our spinach dish and the seasoned and steamed fish. Incredible flavors that were perfectly married.

Wednesday we took the taxi out to Krua Thai. This, again, was delicious. The restaurant is set in a under a huge thatched roof. It is set high on a hill, providing an incredible view of the areas below and other hillsides. Here, I had my first Pad Thai (I know, I know—you cannot believe I’ve never had Pad Thai before), and we had the green curry with chicken. Both were wonderful.

On Thursday, we were both tired, and we’d spent a lot of time in the room working on preparing the last day’s class. (Our students wanted to be taught about minute recording, so I had to teach myself that night. I did, and they said it was exactly the kind of information they needed.) Anyway, we simply walked down to the Speke Hotel for a couple of beers and a pizza at Pizzeria Mammammia. (that’s how they spell it.)

I was skeptical—suspecting simply something that was trying to pass as pizza—but it was actually wonderful. We ordered one pizza with completely different halves. For me, I went with the traditional Margherita. Mimi, on the other hand, got, okay, get this, tuna. If you’re crinkling your nose right about now, yes, that’s what I did too. She loved it, though, so that’s what was important. I didn’t have to eat it, after all.

Friday night, tonight, we walked down to the Kampala Serena hotel and had a couple of drinks in their swanky bar (although it looked a little like World Market1 had exploded in there. Nice, but not the authentic feel like I’ve found at other places) and shared a few appetizers for dinner. After a very long week of teaching and preparing, we were both tired. Dinner was good, though. We had an eggplant dish and another with tomatoes and mozzarella. A nice laid-back evening for out last night here.

And so, I can easily say that the dining experiences have all been wonderful. The variety of cuisine is wonderful, and each is done just as it should be.