I have not posted for a while because firstly I was trying very hard to get part-time work; I've not worked since my redundancy 5 months ago. Secondly I had a long-planned trip to Uganda to visit my son and to do some voluntary work. Hence a posting out of my usual comfort zone.
Mrs O and my 3rd son came with me and we joined my 1st son for a trip to the west of Uganda. On the main road from Kampala to Mbarara we stopped for a lunch break at Lukaya. There are numerous roadside stands grilling goat, chicken and gonja (a sort of banana) and each stand has a bunch of sellers who sell food directly to vehicles.
As can be seen with the bus above there is no shortage of sellers who press travellers hard to buy their wares. Our minibus was surrounded in a similar way.
One of the first things I learned in Uganda is that the banana varieties are different from those we import at home from the Carribean. Matooke is a savoury banana used as a starch accompaniment to meat dishes. Gonja shown above is a short, slightly sweet variety that is very tasty grilled. Its flesh is more yellow than bananas at home. Kabalaga is a sweet but short variety that looks similar inside to bananas.
A more pricey snack is a chicken kebab - though it is not expensive in European terms! - which I recall could be haggled for about 2,000/-. Goat however is cheaper at about 500/-
Selling techniques are very hard as is the haggling!
I had never eaten goat before but I liked it. It has a slightly greasy taste like lamb but a strong and pleasant taste.
gillyk
I used to live in N. Nigeria where our favourite roadside food was kosai. These are made of ground black-eyed beans, mixed with ground onion and chilli, then shaped into little cakes. They are then popped into hot groundnut oil until cooked through - they float to the surface. Delicious! - but difficult to make correctly, as I discovered. First the beans have to be soaked, then all the skins taken off. My Nigerian friends had this down to a fine art but it took me ages. Then they mostly ground the ingredients on a clean flat stone, using another one. I found it difficult to get the texture right, and mine never tasted as good as theirs!