Chapatti!

Introduction:

Food is one of the most important things in a person’s life. Without food, we wouldn’t have the energy to move around, and we would not get the nutrients required for growth. Another interesting aspect of food is that it portrays the culture of a community. That is, food tells a story of how people live, tells us about their surrounding environment, and can even suggest the type of jobs they have. For example, here in Mbarara, the people are mostly matoke (banana) farmers and pastoralists (cattle farmers). Thus, their meals mainly consist of matoke (green banana), g-nut (groundnut), cow and goat stew, millet, corn, and rice.

Food also tells the history of a community. For example, in the U.S., there are so many kinds of food which represent the cultures of the different people who immigrated to the country. Here in Uganda, there are many Indian communities, so the country's diet also has an Indian influence. They have foods like chapattisamosas, chicken curry, chicken tika masala and naan (among other traditional Indian meals).

What food did I try?:

I have tried a lot of food here in Uganda: steamed matoke with g-nut stew, cow and goat meat stew, vegetable rice, gonja (roasted yellow plantain), etc.

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