Street Food

As I am sure most of you either already know or have discovered in my blog that I a bit of a Foodie. However, not in the sense that most people use it, I am not a pretentious eater that only goes to the nicest restaurants that have the best reviews. I am a Foodie I will eat just about anything that is or isn't supposed to edible, sometime not so good yet sometime wicked good. Here in Uganda the street food is a bit more creative than Gambia. I discovered a Rolex about two weeks ago, not the watch but the food. Let me set the scene for this wonderful magic. Its a bit of an elusive beast but well worth the hunt, its can only be found on dirty markets corners (I know my American friends from The Gambia are saying "He will never learn"). So as I was saying it starts out with a thick doughy tortilla called a Chapati that is cooked on a homemade steel skillet on a stand heated by charcoal. Then comes the guts of the sandwich, 2-3 eggs, tomatoes,onions, carrots, peppers all diced up and mixed in with the eggs and cooked on the same skillet like an omelet. Then its rolled up in the Chapati bread thing and presto you have a Rolex. OH MY GOD its a foodgasm in your mouth. And, it costs about .50 cents.

Another interesting thing here is pop-corn. We as Americans associate pop-corn with movie theaters, county fairs and K-Mart. Here its a bit of a cultural anomaly, you can find it all over the place; markets, grocery stores, along the street. Welders even custom make these fancy little popcorn makers and sell them along the roadside. It actually doesn't taste too bad either. This might cost about .25 cents

One of the more non palatable foods for us westerners in apparently only available during this time of year; November-early December. Fried grasshoppers. They look like giant green locusts and they are everywhere. The locals take them and remove everything but the Abdomen/Butt part which is about the size of a finger and then fry it in oil and a little salt. They walk the streets with buckets of these things and sell them to people stuck in traffic or just walking around. A newspaper rolled into a cone acts as a cup and its filled up so you can eat your insects at your leisure. I finally worked up the courage to try one yesterday. It was not my favorite but it was edible and I can see how folks would like them.