We have been alternating between camp cooking and indulgence of being fed at the lodge. Both have their ups and downs – camp cooking is really very good with those of us that know how to cook, is cheaper, and can be very pleasant. Lodge cooking means no effort on the front end or back end and after a long day in the field provides a very enticing option. however, lodge food not an option where there is no lodge and a few weeks ago we stayed with some peace corp volunteers in their lovely mud huts in the middle of a village. It actually was not nearly as bad as that might sound – one of the volunteers had run a cord from the nearby school (with permission) and got electricity into his hut. While we stayed there we cooked dinners as a way to say thank you for the lodging.

Now, Luke and Jg had been doing much of the cooking and I happily followed up with dishes. However, Cerian and I decided we should chip in our part on the dinner preparations and thus took the reins one night for vegetable curry and rice. Sounds intimidating? Suppose depends on who you are…but then again, what if I told you the vegetable curry was canned? How hard could that possibly be? Heh…might ask Jg how long he had to scrub the bottom of the burnt pan at the end of the day. Needless to say, the first attempt wasn’t completely successful in one respect but, I kinda like curry with a crispy edge (and, no, not at all biased) – gives it some texture.

And while Jg and Luke both say we are more than welcome to cook again as long as no pot burning is involved it has yet to happen. But no matter. I think their cooking is great so maybe I’ll just keep watching…maybe I’ll learn something. Then again, lodge meals are not too shabby either.

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 26th, 2008 at 2:06 am and is filed under Africa 08. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.