FOOD, GLORIOUS FOOD

"Food is the most primitive form of comfort." 

-Sheilah Graham 

One of the first questions I am asked upon our return from Africa is, "How was the food?"  Of course, everyone expects me to describe all sorts of unusual meals, incorporating local ingredients and native delicacies, to which my reply is simply, "It was good." Allow me to elaborate.

All the food served at all the lodges and camps was flavorful, filling, and plentiful. Period. It was not a foodie paradise or a gourmet's delight. Rather, to my tastes and culinary skills, it was solid comfort food with added local flavors cooked to feed hungry and often weary  travelers. And as a self-proclaimed non-foodie, it satisfied me as well as my partner just fine.  

In re-reading the OAT Travel Handbook, I think it describes the food quite accurately. The fact is, the lodges and the tented camps we stayed in attract visitors from all over the world. As a result, the chefs have been well-trained to cook in what I would call a Western or European style using locally sourced fresh vegetables, fresh fruits whenever possible, and fresh or frozen meats. All foods are washed and prepared using bottled water so they are safe for Western digestive systems. I even ate the leafy green salads offered at two of the hotel/lodges with no ill-effects, which can't always be said right here in the U.S.

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Breakfasts were most always served buffet-style with the usual choices of American and European fare including eggs (cooked-to-order), breads (fresh or toasted), fruit (fresh and canned), sausage or bacon, assorted cheeses and cold cuts, plus cold and hot cereal, yogurt, and fruit juices.

The morning sunrise warms the breakfast table at Lake Burunge Tented Lodge

The breakfast buffet is ready at our OAT tented camp in the Serengeti.

A variety of sweet potatoes, fresh fruit and toast are among the choices at
House of West Kili on the pre-trip excursion.

This breakfast buffet at Moivaro Arusha Lodge has enough selections to satisfy even the
 pickiest eater--from continental style fruit, cheese and breads in the foreground
to a variety of hot breakfast selections in the back, including made-to-order eggs.

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Similarly dinners were also buffet-style and always started with hot soup (some variation of a vegetable-based soup) and bread. The main courses included a variety of meat and or vegetable stews, curries, or braised meat dishes with some sort of sauce. Starches included polenta, rice, potatoes (boiled, roasted or mashed), and pasta along with a plentiful array of cooked vegetable dishes and raw vegetable salads. 

Our first dinner of soup and bread was served upon our late-night arrival
in Tanzania at the House of West Kili Hotel on the pre-trip excursion. 

Karibu means 'welcome.'  In this case welcome to the soup station at the start of the dinner service
 and later to the custom stir-fry station to the left.

Despite all the soups being similarly green in color, they all tasted slightly
different depending upon the vegetables and other ingredients.

Dinners by candlelight was always the custom since we usually didn't eat before 7-7:30 after a full day of touring or late-in-the-afternoon game drives followed by showers and a social hour. Depending upon the individual lodge or tented camp, beer, wine and mixed drinks were either complimentary or available at a no-host bar. 

Candlelight and beaded Masai collars used as place mats set a welcoming table
at our first dinner at the House of west Kili.

Candlelight softens the overhead glare of the few electric lights in the
open-air dining lodge at Kambi Ya Tembo camp.

Our candlelit deck table at Lake Burunge Tented Camp beckons us to relax
and enjoy dinner and conversation after a busy day. 

Using only a solar powered generator, electricity was at a premium at our OAT camp
in the Serengeti where candlelight softens the glare of a single bare bulb.

With so many choices offered, it was very easy to fill one's plate.

Food was both attractive and plentiful, hence the full plates at dinner. 
And I must confess, I usually ate everything on my plate.

However, as the trip progressed I became more careful about filling my plate. For one reason, the food all began to taste the same to me. It's not a complaint but a reality I have experienced when traveling in a group where meals are served buffet style. Plus, some evenings I just wasn't so hungry. That's when a salad of green leafy lettuce, onions, tomatoes and avocados sounded good. And because we had been assured that all the vegetables had been washed with bottled water, I had no qualms about eating the fresh green salads. 

This lettuce salad along with the house-made honey mustard dressing satiated me
when I grew tired of the soups, stews and marinated vegetable salads.
Sometimes less is definitely more.

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Lunches varied the most depending upon if it was a picnic lunch, which we hand-packed ourselves in the morning from a buffet of lunch foods and ate at a rest stop along the way, or if we ate in a restaurant at a hotel/lodge along our day's route. But the variety and amount was always more than adequate. Again, no one went hungry. 

In Arusha, we ate lunch at the Asili Resort where beer and wine was included.

In the photos below, the chef at the Asili Resort describes each of the foods he has prepared for our lunch. Along with the grilled meats, Chapatti (flat bread) and several potato varieties, there is an assortment of cooked vegetables and stews including Wali wa Nazi (rice in coconut milk), Ugali (cornmeal grits), cooked plantains, and spinach. 

A little of this, some of that makes for a filled plate.

This sit-down lunch at Lake Burunge Tented Lodge offers a variety of cooked
vegetable salads along with a chicken or beef entree.  

In addition, there were the impromptu, food-on-the-hood snacks, organized by Lenny,
our Trip Leader, when it had been a long day and he knew we needed a little sustenance.

Then there was brunch, especially on the early morning game drives during the pre-trip excursion. Typically we'd awaken at sunrise and have coffee and a cookie or bread before heading out to see the animals. Then about 10:30 we'd return to the tented camp for brunch. Brunch looked very similar to the dinners except that in addition, you could order eggs cooked any way you wanted. Did I already mention no one ever went hungry? 

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Desserts were also plentiful and included cakes, tortes and custards, but as a sweet lover myself, I found the baked goods often disappointingly dry and lacking in sweetness as my American taste is accustomed. But that was the only disappointment in the otherwise excellent fare. 

Rice pudding before anyone touched it with a spoon.

And as far as I know, no one became ill as a result of eating the food. Yes, there were a few cases of traveler's you-know-what, but they seemed to be short-lived and relieved within 24 hours with Immodium or Pepto-Bismal. 

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But what was most incredible and memorable were the kitchens in which our meals were prepared, specifically at the two tented camps which were miles from Arusha or any big city. How the chefs, who always wore white chef coats and tall white chef hats, created their magic meal after meal was phenomenal and worth mentioning.

This screened in room (below) is the kitchen at Kambi Ya Tembo Camp on the pre-trip excursion. It is located 500 feet downhill from the main lodge where we ate. This is where all the food was prepared and then transported in a cart up to the dining room to a small serving kitchen which set up the mealtime service. 

Everything in the kitchen was spic and span when we visited. The roof is corrugated metal with a deep thatched overhang.
 The sides are half metal and half screen. Notice the two, two-burner propane cook-tops
 which amazingly produced all of the cooked food we ate. 

This is one of several vegetable storage bins which store the fresh vegetables that are delivered from Arusha
by truck once a week. Having traveled from Arusha to the camp ourselves, it is not an easy 2-hour trip (one-way)
because there is much road construction as well as bumpy, dirt roads. Notice the egg crates on top. 

As evidenced by the empty bins, our OAT trip had all but depleted the vegetable stores.

One of the three camp chefs stands next to a wood or charcoal fired grill.
Look closely to see that it is re-purposed from an automobile wheel. 

This is the pot washing station.

This is the pot drying station.

The camp director and the camp chef.

This is the tented kitchen at the OAT movable tent camp in the Serengeti where we stayed for four nights. 

The heavy metal screen is designed to keep out the large animals that may roam the camp at night.

The camp chef utilizes basic cooking methods that don't require electricity or fancy gadgets. 

Unlike the kitchen at the previous tented camp, this kitchen has a five-burner,
one-oven propane stove.

Obviously, the oven is used to produce beautifully browned rolls such as these.

The produce bins while not as depleted as in the previous camp, they will be used up soon as this camp will be moved
in the weeks following our trip. All OAT tented camps are required to be moved seasonally to protect the fragile environment.

The wash station is located behind the kitchen under the shade of its own tent and a nearby tree.

NOTE: For more information about any of the tented camps and lodges mentioned, please follow the links embedded within the text.

THE FOOTHILLS OF KILIMANJARO--O.A.T. PRE-TRIP: Arrival and Learning & Discovery-Part 1

OMG! AM I REALLY HERE IN AFRICA?

Doug and I have been planning this trip for eight months. It is our first OAT trip because we had to cancel another OAT trip to China and Mongolia for September 2017 after Doug's surgery and subsequent stroke. However, last February we took our first ocean cruise post-stroke to see how Doug's recovery was progressing, and he passed. So upon our return, he booked the Serengeti Tented Safari along with both the pre-trip and post-trip extensions for October of this year. And then we began the long wait.

We broke up our long trans-continental and trans-Atlantic flights with a 3-day stopover in Amsterdam, and we are glad we did. But now after an 8-hour flight from Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam, we've landed in Kilimanjaro National Airport in Tanzania, Africa and we're excited.

As per instructions, we were greeted outside customs by Lenny, our Trip Leader, and Salum, our other driver/guide for the pre-trip. We recognized the other OAT travelers by their tell-tale khaki canvas duffles and gathered together in the warm night air of Tanzania to begin our adventure. Of the 11 people on the pre-trip, all were novices to this part of Africa except one who was repeating this trip for the fourth time. Wow! It must be THAT good to repeat it four times, I thought. So bring it on!

After a 45-minute drive (on the left side of the road as they are wonky drivers like the English-LOL), we arrived at our first lodge--The House of West Kili. It is located, as you may have guessed, on the western slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro in the small village of Lawate. 

It was dark when we arrived and we were tired as we were led to our cottages, but I remarked to myself when were given our key how appropriate it was that the couple from Walla Walla was staying in the room named Swala. It had a nice ring to it. 

(Swala, by the way, means antelope in Swahili.)

 Our room was just as I had imagined it to be. A four-poster bed with mosquito netting draped all around.

And the bathroom was enormous. But this was the beginning of remembering to brush our teeth with bottled water, a resource OAT provided for our entire 21-day trip.

Our first meal in Tanzania was back at the lodge that was set with candlelight and Maasai beaded neck rings as placemats. What a memorable welcome!

Our first African meal was vegetable soup and bread which was nothing like the Cambell's or Progresso soups I serve back home.

Upon waking in the morning, I could see where we were. Each cottage has two separate guest rooms with a common veranda, and there are a total of ten cottages. The owner, Abraham, used to be an OAT Trip Leader who, during his off-time, built this lodge to serve as a stopping point between the airport and Mt. Kilimanjaro for trips like OAT and others. Now he runs the lodge and restaurant full time.

This is the main building which holds the dining room/restaurant and a conference center.

And this is Abraham who took a liking to Doug since they are both tall. Brothers from a different mother, no doubt.

And this is Lenny, our fearless and intrepid Trip Leader. I wonder what he has in store for us.

Our first African breakfast included fruits, vegetables and pancakes that were both colorful and tasty.

After breakfast, Abraham gave us a geography and history lesson of the region. A nice feature of OAT is that the Trip Leader utilizes local experts to give lectures and briefings which supplement his own wealth of information. 

With OAT, it's all about Learning and Discovery, and we were about to find out firsthand just what that meant.

GETTING LOCAL
Home Visit

Our first of what turned out to be several home visits was not on the official itinerary of our first day in the hills of Kilimanjaro. In fact, nothing we did that first morning was in our itinerary, but this home visit set a high bar for a wealth of Learning and Discovery to come. I have to admit, however, I was not prepared to face the stark reality of the conditions in which many people live in Tanzania.  

After breakfast, Abraham took us across the street from the West Kili Lodge to meet the family who lives there. This is his neighborhood because besides owning the lodge, he lives next door with his own family. We were accompanied by another local guide who knows the family. It consists of a grandmother, her daughter, and her three grandchildren. They live in a compound of several small brick and mud huts along with their cow, goats and chickens. They have a separate fenced off area for their latrine only a short distance from the huts.

As an aside, all of these photos were taken with permission of the family. In fact, whenever we visited a family or a group of people, the guides had asked permission for us to take photographs. 

Here we are meeting the grandmother who is 75-80 years old.

This is the grandmother's cooking hut made of bricks and mud. The roof is covered with black plastic tarps and what appears to be random, loose sheets of rusty, corrugated metal. 

This is the younger grandson with the family cow which lives in this shed only feet from the family living hut.

This is his older sister who was only too happy to pose for a photo as long as I showed her the results.

It was immediately obvious that she and her brothers have seen enough cell phones to know how to scroll through the photos.

The sister and her older brother. 

Initially, the older brother was more reluctant to get his picture taken but soon decided to join in the fun. Note the hen and baby chicks in the lower left.

 With the sun beating down on the black tarps, they appear to weather and fade to create this lovely warm glow from inside the cooking hut. The only other light is from the doorway and a small window along one side.

That is except for this re-cycled and re-purposed can that's made into a kerosene lantern.

Here is the grandmother who seemed eager to show us her kitchen and all the utensils she uses. As you can see, she sits on a low wooden stool to cook at the wood and charcoal fire.

There was only room for 3-4 of us to stand in the hut to watch her demonstration.

With a telling grin on her face, the grandmother seems pleased to show us how she can whisk the contents of the pot simply by rolling the stick back and forth between her hands.

Chopping a supply of firewood is a daily chore. 

A mortar and pestle is a standard kitchen tool used to crush grains, herbs, and whatever else needs crushing.

A forked tree branch works great for moving pots on and off the fire.

This is the only window in the small cooking hut.

This is the outdoor kitchen located next to the daughter's hut.

Pots and pans dry on top of this goat shed.

With no glass in the window, cardboard boxes serve to keep out the wind, blowing dust, flying birds, and whatever else.

The nearby bushes serve to hold drying striped socks which are part of the children's school uniform.

Other pieces of the uniform hang on the clothes line. Public school uniforms are the same colors as the Tanzanian flag--blue, green, black and yellow.

Despite the spare living conditions, these potted ornamental plants suggest that people still have a need to grow plants just for their beauty.

Lace tennies atop the roof--a still life

What hopes and dreams lie in the future of this young man?

A red amaryllis was the last thing I saw as we walked along the path leaving the house.

REFLECTION: To say this home visit was sobering is an understatement. I know I have lived a privileged life being a white, educated, professional albeit retired, middle class, American woman. In fact, that was one of my concerns in traveling to Tanzania with a group of similarly privileged Americans. How do we come across to others who, as I just witnessed, have so little? 

Part of that gap was bridged by Abraham and our Trip Leader Lenny, who had clearly pre-arranged this visit, as spontaneous as it seemed to us. That they could speak Swahili with the family helped us communicate by asking and answering our questions.

But it was the smiles that bridged the remaining gap. A smile knows no language. The quiet grin on the face of the grandmother suggests how proud she was to show us her range of culinary tools. And the smiles on bright faces of the children suggest a contentment with their life because this is all they know.


In the next blog, take a ride in an authentic Tuk-Tuk and drink banana beer.