In which I turn into a Foodie and Perhaps Lose My Sexiness

I have a generous share of sexy womanly curves.

i.e., I am overweight.

 

I don’t know why I am overweight. Eating bores me. I love a good meal and I have a healthy appetite. I am just bored by eating and I approach mealtimes with dread.

It doesn’t help that I am a pretty bad cook. Today, for lunch I had a delightful spread of aerated crackers, leftover garlic chicken, an avocado and water. Gourmet eating, yay!

 

Rev and Mrs were my Sunday afternoon guests. Fortunately they had already had lunch and were spared the horror of my meal. They were appalled by what I was eating and lectured me at length about health, exercise and my expanding waistline. 

 

I went into sulky 7-year-old mode, which is particularly unattractive on a prematurely graying, 33 and three-quarters woman. I said food was boring. I said leave me alone. I said I was tired of the Ugandan diet of starch, starch, starch and hey, lookie heeyah! More starch!

 

Rev and Mrs are Bakiga folk. There are a couple of things Bakiga folk don’t do. They don’t wail for the dead, they don’t sing without clapping, and they don’t suffer fools lightly.

Lunching with KT Turnstall

Had a brilliant late lunch today.  Balanced my craving for ham and cheese from The Crocodile Café with a lightly tossed vegetables, convincing myself that I was eating healthy.  Company courtesy of KT Turnstall. 

I slip softly through

Your slim fingers

Feeling traces I embrace this

Feeling that lingers.

Little Favors from the album Drastic Fantastic.

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Thank you Kaykhanittha for pointing me to an online store for the latest cobra and scorpion bubbly.  The store even has an express delivery mail delivery option.  Cummon, be a little daring and order a bottle or two here.

Lunch Anyone?

Everyone who knows me thinks I am Superwoman. Yes, yes, I know … I am great rah-rah-etc and only two people know me, but they are always surprised to know that I fight with the most mundane human temptations. 

My Achilles Heel is food. I starve, I binge, I cook, I burn, I buy veggies that I never eat, I eat meat that I never buy, I am hopelessly in love with food.  And hopelessly in love with Bradley Whitford, but that’s another story for another day. 

Inspired by Shelly, Midnitebara, Foodhoe, HT, Carolyn and Salvatore I have decided to channel my cravings into a new page on my blog.  Please join me as I journey through the ups and downs of my relationship with food and hopefully turn a new leaf. 

<><  tumwijuke  

What I had for lunch today –  Chicken vindaloo, mixed vegetable paneer, steamed vegetable rice and garlic nan from Tandoori Pavement in Kisementi.

Company –  Train. 

Satisfying!

Yum Yum

. 

Black Man in the Far East sent me this picture of snake wine, one of the finest fuddles in North Korea.  It is best enjoyed with a plate of roast dog tenderloin.

 Bottoms up everyone!

Hacking for Charity

Be afraid.  Be very afraid.  The Hackers are in town!

For real. 

A new organization, ihackcharities.org is in Uganda to raise the profile of HIV/AIDS efforts in the country.  It is made up of a group of skilled hackers who will do volunteer work with a Ugandan NGO, Action for Empowerment, lending their skills in fundraising and development to help communities in need. 

One of the major projects ihackcharities.org is involved in is building a website for a Ugandan group called Predestined that writes music to raise awareness and funds for HIV/AIDS efforts.  Security researchers who volunteer for the organization get the fringe benefit of professional references and some resume-building experience. 

Click the icon below for more information on damage-free hacking in Uganda. 

 

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Every once in a while I have enough money to buy myself a decent meal in a fancy restaurant.  However, I usually end up alone in my kitchen swallowing another tasteless dish of bread and soup instead. 

You see, I am faced with the same dilemma month after month.  Where do I go to eat that I haven’t eaten before?  Who is serving a new and interesting cuisine?  Will it be clean when I go there and will the food be fresh?  Will I have a quiet meal alone or will I be swamped by Kampala’s yuppies? Will I find parking for my Porsche (in my dreams)?

There should be somewhere I can turn to for this sort of information, but the City Beat magazine only offers the same old information about the same old overpriced Italian, Indian and Chinese restaurants.  It doesn’t help the Timothy Bukumunhe, the New Vision’s restaurant critic, has become totally useless in that regard.  Over the past few weeks he has been writing about great places to eat while you are in South Africa.  South Africa?! 

If you chose to stay at home, the three English dailies in Uganda – The Red Pepper, The Monitor and The New Vision – offer menus for you to experiment with.  But if you go by the totally unattractive pictures that accompany the menus, you will probably end up with a lump of goop stuck at the bottom of your pan by the time you are done. 

Facing such gastronomic deficiencies in the available media, it was with much pleasure that I came across a blog that is literally mouthwatering.   Salvatore of My Food Tour takes beautiful pictures of food and restaurants, a visit to his blog made me hungry after I had just wolfed down a kikomando*. 

I know Salvatore is even further away from me that Bukumunhe’s “places to get a great steak while in Jo’burg,” but there is something about the presentation of the food, his reviews and the composition of his pictures that makes me indifferent to the fact that I will probably never go to the restaurants he has visited. 

Tonight, it will be bread and soup again for me, but no worries.  I have printed one of Salvatore’s pictures that will export me to an exotic place, tasty food and the company of beautiful people.  

*Kikomando – a mixture of beans, rice, cabbage and minced meat rolled in a chapatti lined with fried egg.  It’s a kind of Ugandan tortilla!