Ugandan Food Special: What Do You Actually Eat Locally?
Editor's note: The author joined the Peace Corps and came to Uganda in Africa as a volunteer, expecting to live and work here for two years. This is the beginning of the [Uganda Correspondence] series, using food to lead everyone deep into this African country.
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Recently the food safety storm in Taiwan has grown more and more intense. Last week when I called my mom, on the other end of the line she said indignantly, "Ting Hsin has really gone too far! All of Taiwan has decided to never buy their products again!" It looks like after I return to Taiwan, there will be another long list of things I can neither eat nor buy. When did eating with peace of mind, and buying safe food at a reasonable price, actually become a luxurious happiness for people in Taiwan? Thinking about it, for a country that once fed the masses mainly through agriculture, this is truly ironic. Decades have passed, and the result of industrialization has left our food with more and more additives, more and more pesticides, and ever further from the land.
The importance people in Taiwan place on food can be seen from comparing how I receive packages with how my American friends do. My packages are full of food and some electronics, while my friends' packages contain all kinds of bath products, board games, and home decorations. There would absolutely never be parents in Taiwan sending their children bottles and jars of bath products. Apart from that, once when I met a Taiwan volunteer who had come to Uganda, they started complaining right away about Ugandan food and reminiscing about the snack stalls near National Taiwan University - salsa cold noodles, Fengcheng roast meats, Zuihong's mushroom chicken rice. I had never realized before that I was actually a true foodie.
For places you cannot reach, use food instead. Only after coming here did I understand that my stomach is very Asian. Even now I am still not sure whether it is because Asian food really is tastier, or simply because of homesickness on the tip of my tongue (the only food that can rival Asian food is Ethiopian cuisine, which is so good that I even want to go back and open a restaurant). In order to cook the food I wanted to eat, I had no choice but to pick up the spatula, going to the market every weekend to buy vegetables and ingredients. Half a year ago, I never would have imagined that researching what to cook at night would become the happiest part of my day. Homesickness and craving good food really are the best culinary schools - no wonder everyone who has ever studied in the UK knows how to cook.
