With a new country always comes new foods. In Zimbabwe, the staple food is sadza. This white bland pasty food made from ground corn is ubiquitous. The closest I can describe it to my American friends is imagining grits with consistency of mashed potatoes. This food is eaten daily by most Zimbabweans and at every meal for some. A local junior doctor joked that if a Zimbabwean goes 3 days without sadza, they start speaking incoherently, sweating and may go into convulsions. Personally, it is such a heavy food that it feels like a dense brick sitting in your stomach after eating it. Considering the scarcity of food at times, this very full feeling can be a welcome one. Pictured here is one of our drivers and a guard showing how it's made. They're vigorously mixing the water and cornmeal on our stove at Sarah's farwell party.
The second term I learned here is 'braai' (rhymes with bye), known in the U.S. as a BBQ. It's an Afrikaans word meaning "grilled meat." Close proximity to South Africa means alot of Afrikaans words get thrown in. Unlike sadza, this I've been indulging in very happily. The free range cattle all over the country results in some mouth watering T-bone steaks for about $2 per person. At the same farwell party last month, with over 50 attending, there were a lot of steaks on the grill.
At evening concerts, usually in a large outdoor field, there are rows of self-serve grills. You buy your raw beef or chicken by the kilogram from one stand and salt to taste. Next you take it over to the grill and grab any available rod to flip your meal and take it hot and dripping off the heat while chatting with your friends or other concert go-ers.
The second term I learned here is 'braai' (rhymes with bye), known in the U.S. as a BBQ. It's an Afrikaans word meaning "grilled meat." Close proximity to South Africa means alot of Afrikaans words get thrown in. Unlike sadza, this I've been indulging in very happily. The free range cattle all over the country results in some mouth watering T-bone steaks for about $2 per person. At the same farwell party last month, with over 50 attending, there were a lot of steaks on the grill.
At evening concerts, usually in a large outdoor field, there are rows of self-serve grills. You buy your raw beef or chicken by the kilogram from one stand and salt to taste. Next you take it over to the grill and grab any available rod to flip your meal and take it hot and dripping off the heat while chatting with your friends or other concert go-ers.
