Food in Siavonga

It seemed as though the question I fielded most frequently upon my return from Zambia this summer was, "How was the food?" My answer would be, ""Good. Plain. The same every...single...day." There wasn't much variety, but it wasn't too bad at all.

The most common and most loved food of the region is nsima (pronounced shee-mah. Why the preceding "n"? It's a mystery to me as well). Nsima is made by mixing boiling water and corn-meal, or what is known there as "mealie-meal", the staple crop for the region. It's plain, white, tastes something like grits and has the consistency of mashed potatoes. It was baffling to me how much they love it. They eat it every single day of their lives and never get tired of it. Hey, whatever floats your boat.

Here's my man, Bickel, serving up everyone's nsima. Bickel is 9, loves Sponge Bob Square Pants and bears an uncanny resemblance to the late great rapper slash actor Tupac Shakur. Fact.

For every lunch and dinner the children of Namumu are served a heaping helping of nsima with a serving of either fish, chicken, beef, cabbage or rape. Every now and then there's some other fruit or vegetable, too. For breakfast they eat porridge. The Namumu directors fully understand the importance of a healthy diet for these growing children and they keep them well-fed, no matter how tight the budget gets.

During my stay this summer I ate with the Namumu executive director, Munjongo, and his wife, Esther, for breakfast, lunch and dinner. They hooked it up. I got fatter. It was always chicken, beef or fish with nsima, nsima and more nsima, but it was always good.

Here's a pretty standard meal of (clockwise, from the very top) fish, rape, soup, nsima and beef. Esther was very grandma-ish and made me eat plate after plate until it was all gone. Needless to say, it was not good for my girlish figure.

If you are a friend to me at all you will have already asked yourself, "What did he do about hot sauce? Did he have any?" Unfortunately, I did not. As a guest I did not want to be pushy and seek it out. I had to quit cold turkey. After a week or so of breaking out into cold sweats, head-splitting headaches and full-body convulsions I managed to conquer my addiction and do without hot sauce for every meal.

As of right now, my plan is to grow peppers in the garden and make my own hot sauce. However, if you would like to find a special place in my heart from now until the end of time, you can feel free to ship any and all tabasco products to:

The Namumu Orphanage Centre

Siavonga, Zambia

P.O. Box 50