The Dinner Diaries

Over the last three weeks I've been keeping track of my dinners - just to give everyone a better idea of what passed for "normal" when you're cooking with very limited kitchen supplies.

Each entry have three subsections: What, How and Comment. Most have pictures, but some does not.

Sunday 07 November

• Szechwan Hot & Sour soup with rice + one bread
• Szechwan Hot & Sour cup soup, 4dl water, 1dl rice, cook until rice is tender. Use bread to clean pot and bowl.
•  Reasonable hot and spicy. Not quite the Chinese I get at home, but not bad either. Worth doing again.

Monday 08 November

• Three breads with honey, jam and “Tuna Lime & Pepper”
• Slice in two, add spread, eat and repeat
• Light dinner, since lunch was heavier than usual (dehydrated chicken in sweet and sour sauce, combat ration, 520 kcal) 

Tuesday 09 November

• Rice and green lentils - African Curry style
• ½ dl rice, ½ dl lentils, 4 dl water, a tablespoon of African Curry, a block of Lamb Stock, salt and pepper to taste. 
• Planned as a light meal that should stay with me, since the Chief of Security asked if I wanted to hit a restaurant later. The place is a bit hit and miss as far as food goes, so better to eat a little first. Tasty, but go easier on the spice next time...Also, the restaurant had good food, but we opted for finger food so it worked out. Ethiopian is tasty.

 

Wednesday 10 November

• Aromatic Thai Chicken & Lemon grass soup with rice + one bread
• Aromatic Thai Chicken & Lemon grass cup soup, 4dl water, 1dl rice, cook until rice is tender. Use bread to clean pot and bowl
• A variation on Sundays dinner, but with a different 'cup soup' as the main flavor. Smelled really, really good while simmering. Nice creamy consistency, good taste. Could be spicier, but that is true for most of my container cooking.

Thursday 11 November

• Cod and Potato  Casserole
• Prepare as follow:
• Fold out bottom and tear off the top of the pouch
• Add boiling water to the fill line (approx. 3.6dl) (water at a lower temperature can be used)
• Stir thoroughly.
• Close the pouch with the zipper. 
• Wait min. 5 minutes (if using water at a lower temperature, the food must be allowed to rest for longer)
• Yeah... it's dehydrated combat rations... I spent three hours talking to a fellow UNMO about everything from how to get fresh produce via learning English to the cost of housing, and then a bit more than an hour on the phone. It got late and I was hungry. Besides, it tastes pretty good.

 

Friday 12 November

• Rice and Lentils a la Tamarind
• ½ dl rice, ½ dl lentils, 4 dl water, one block of beef bullion, brought to a boil and let simmer until lentils are soft. Add tamarind to taste once on your plate.
• Another variation on the staple food of rice and lentils. Pretty okay – would be interesting to combine the tamarind with meat of some description – probably goat, considering where I am.

Saturday 13 November

• Southern Cajun Gumbo soup with rice and one bread.
• Southern Cajun Gumbo cup soup, 4 dl water, 1 dl rice, cook until rice is tender. Use bread to clean pot and bowl.
• Smells good, tastes good. Yet another variation on a theme I got going... but it's quick, easy and filling as well as tasty.

Sunday 14 November

• Tex-mex rice and lentils.
• ½ dl rice, ½ dl lentils, 4 dl water, one cube of lamb stock, plenty of tex-mex spice. 
• Ye olde standby – but easy to make and very, very tasty. Now, where did I put the taco-meat, the home made salsa and the tortillas...

Monday 15 November

• Ethiopian finger food
• Eat out
• Headed out to Addis Ababa restaurant (w/ pool table and bar) – TSL wanted to 'not have combat rations' for dinner, and invited me and the other 'wege out.

Tuesday 16 November

• Lapskaus
• Fold out bottom and tear of top of pouch etc
• Yeah, it's combat rations again – except it ain't. It's the civilian version, which comes in more flavors and honestly tastes a little better (more spices). It feels like cheating, but I was on a SDP all day and had no lunch. Quick and easy and tasty too.

Wednesday 17 November

• Medammes, Egyptian recipe, with rice.
• One can of Egyptian style medammes (fava bean stew), 1 dl rice, 2 dl milk. Simmer for 45 minutes.
• made with milk both because I had some milk left, and to create a milder flavour. Like most food I made, strangely tasty... probably a combination of being hungry, good raw materials, and home cooking.

Thursday 18 November

• Ethiopian finger food.
• Eat out.
• Some of the other westerners in the area wanted to see the TSL before he headed out. I was more than happy to tag along – tasty food is tasty.

Friday 19 November

• Chicken in Curry
• Fold out bottom and...
• Dehydrated dinner again – even if it feels like cheating. Trouble is, I was Duty Officer and all I had all day was two small breads, a bucket of coffee and two bottles of water. And it got late – dinner served at 2350.

Saturday 20 November

• Rice and lentils, BBQ style.
• 1 dl rice, ½ dl lentils, 5 dl water, beef stock and BBQ spice
• Late lunch after a skimpy breakfast and little sleep. Made enough to leave a snack for breakfast. Different, but tasty.
• "Real" dinner was buffet at New Tokyo - farewell party for our Danish TSL.

Sunday 21 November

• Ethiopian finger food
• Eat out
• The TSLs last dinner in Yei. Planned (barely) partly due to a power outage in camp. Meet a couple of Dutch people at the restaurant and had a good time.

Monday 22 November

• Hot and Spicy Rice and Lentils
• ½ dl rice, ½ dl lentils,  5 dl water, chicken stock,  one (1) self picked tiny pepper
• Yes, there is hot peppers growing in our compound.  I was warned by the Danish TSL just before he left that they were very hot, so just one made it into the pot this time

Tuesday 23 November

• Lentil, beans and kidney beans stew
• One can of beans and kidney beans stew, ½ dl lentils, ½ can water, simmer until lentils are soft. Paprika, salt and pepper to taste.
• Not entirely sure where the can is from – most likely it was among the stuff I got from the departing TSL. And since everything is better with lentils and/or rice, I added lentils. Quite tasty, with a rich, creamy mouth feel to it.

Wednesday 24 November

• Southern Cajun Gumbo soup with rice, lentils and one bread
• Southern Cajun Gumbo cup soup, 4 dl water, ½ dl rice, ½ dl lentils, cook until rice is tender. Use bread to clean pot and bowl.
• Slight variation on an earlier theme. simple, tasty, filling.

Thursday 25 November

• Vegetable soup with rice.
• Generic, no brand vegetable cup soup (UN rations), 1 dl rice, 4 dl water, spice to taste, boil until creamy.
• Big lunch, since we're invited to a late dinner with the BanBat commander. Simple, tasty – but not as tasty as the cup soups I brought from Norway.

Friday 26 November

• Pea and chilli "omelet"
• One can peas (250gr drained), two tiny peppers, two eggs, dash of salt. Sweat the finely chopped peppers in a bit of olive oil, add the peas, whip the eggs in a cup and pour over, stir until all the egg is cooked through.
• More scrambled eggs than omelet, this was a precursor to a more ambiguous dinner. If I'm going to get horrible sick eating eggs, I rather not spend an hour or more preparing a tasty dinner first... hence the idea of an omelet. Back home I would toss some ham or diced salami in, but down here the choices are more limited. Tasted quite all right, with a nice after burn. Just enough to make my lips and tongue tickle, but not to much.

Saturday 27 November

• Various, including goat on the barbie.
• Get invited to a birthday party at one of the local NGOs.
• Omm nom nom. Got promoted to "the BBQ man", and had a good time too.

Sunday 28 November

• Rice and lentils in chilli sauce
• ½ dl rice, ½ dl lentils, 5 dl water, lamb stock, chilli/garlic spice, a dash of chilli sauce, let simmer until thick and creamy.
• Yet another variation. One thing I like about rice and lentils is the versatility of it. This one was nice and spicy, with a real tingle to it.

 And that's it - three weeks of dinners from my kitchenette.

The close things

I think I have found out why the poem in the last post hit so close to home, despite the fact that I have never seen it before my better half pointed it out to me. It is, in fact, because the essence of it neatly echoes a poem I grew up with:

De Nære Ting

Ditt sinn monne flyve så vide omkring,
det er som du glemmer de nære ting,
det er som du aldri en time har fred,
du lengter bestandig et annet sted.

Du syns dine dager er usle og grå,
hva er det du søker, hva venter du på?
Når aldri du unner deg rast eller ro,
kan ingen ting vokse og intet gro.

Gå inn i din stue, hvor liten den er,
så rommer den noe ditt hjerte har kjær.
På ropet i skogen skal ingen få svar,
finn veien tilbake til det du har.

Den lykken du søker bak blående fjell,
kan hende du alltid har eiet den selv.
Du skal ikke jage i hvileløs ring,
men lær deg å elske de nære ting

Arne Paasce Aasen

And in my attemt at translatation, aided by Google:

The Close Things
Your mind was set to fly wide and far, 
it is like you forget the close things, 
it is like you never have one hour of peace, 
you long always to be somewhere else.

You think your days are grim and gray, 
what are you looking for, what are you waiting for? 
When not treating yourself to rest or peace, 
nothing can take root and nothing grow.

Go into your home, however small 
it holds something your heart holds dear.
 The shout in the forest will not get an answer,
 find your way back to what you have.

The happiness you are seeking behind distant mountains, 
You may have always owned it yourself. 
You should not chase restless around 
but learn to love the close things.

Some heavy thinking been going on

Yesterday was Thanksgiving for those of you who are in the US. For those of a non-US persuasion; Thanksgiving was originally a harvest festival, but has morphed into a mixture of family feast and an excuse pre-christmas consumerism (check out Black Friday if you don't believe me). Off course, when in deepest Africa, the perspective on thing changes somewhat... not only are we far from harvest season (or rather, harvest is something that goes on all year around) and I am far from my loved ones, but the concept of going crazy over cheap consumer goods is about as relevant to the people around me as learning to ski...

Related to that, my better half pointed me to a poem that was unknown to me, but which neatly sums up a large part of my life philosophy: Be honest, happy, cheerful and enjoy life. Stuff usually works out in the end And remember that there usually is a difference between what people want and what they really need, and that include yourself...

Desiderata

Go placidly amid the noise and haste,
and remember what peace there may be in silence.

As far as possible without surrender
be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
and listen to others,
even the dull and the ignorant;
they too have their story.
Avoid loud and aggressive persons,
they are vexatious to the spirit.

If you compare yourself with others,
you may become vain and bitter;
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.

Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.
Keep interested in your own career, however humble;
it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
Exercise caution in your business affairs;
for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;
many persons strive for high ideals;
and everywhere life is full of heroism.

Be yourself.
Especially, do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love;
for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment
it is as perennial as the grass.

Take kindly the counsel of the years,
gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.
But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.

Beyond a wholesome discipline,
be gentle with yourself.
You are a child of the universe,
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore be at peace with God,
whatever you conceive Him to be,
and whatever your labors and aspirations,
in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul.

With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful.
Strive to be happy.

Slooow days

It's amazing how long a day can be when you're stuck in an office - but someone have to do it.

The concept of Duty Officer is well known to me, even if we call it something else back home. But the end result is the same; stay in the office, mind the phone, monitor communications and in general be available if needed. But I much rather be out and about - doing stuff.

Not that I haven't been doing stuff. I done a lot today, but it's all been done while sitting down and in front of the computer. Not my idea of what going to Africa should be all about, but it is a task that needs doing. At least tomorrow should be better - I can get out and do things again!

Some like it hot!

 This cute little pepper bush grows by my neighbors container... looks innocent enough, right?

 Less than a minute of idle picking yielded this harvest - which ought to fill my needs at least until Christmas rolls around. Look big and plump, do they not?

Well, maybe not so big, but they do pack a powerful punch. Just the smallest one of these in today's dinner made me grasp my water bottle. Some people do like it hot, but this stuff is stronger than it looks...

The suggestion that these are jalapeños have been forwarded, but I wonder if they might be something else, seeing how tiny they are. The jalapeño should be 5-9 centimeters when mature, and these are a centimeter or less. Whatever they are, they are spicy. Having them growing outside my door should make cooking easier.