Wine and Brie is Magic in any Country.

Yesterday, I went grocery shopping to attempt to MAKE supper (yes, actually cook) at Shaloo’s house. I have a classic Maple Curry Pasta recipe that’s always a hit, so I figured I’d try it out in Africa. We ended up getting home too late to cook it, so we postponed. This was probably for the best, as there was a massive thunder and lightning storm which cut the power for quite awhile and we wouldn’t have been finished cooking.

Note: whatever you may hear, I was not ‘scared’ of the lighting, I just don’t like it.

Cooking in Africa is an adventure in itself. For the groceries, I had to hit 4 stores and a market. Vegetable soup broth doesn’t exist here, but on my

4^th attempt I found bouillon cubes and made it myself. Curry paste is also impossible, so I bought curry and made a paste with olive oil that was a decent approximation. Cream cheese is also unheard of, but there is a cheese snack product called Kiri that made a good substitute. I also bought a 0.25 cent baguette and $15 in Brie in case this all failed and we had to eat cheese and bread for supper. Oh, and a couple bottles of vino. Clearly.

Paul, one of Shaloo’s drivers, took me around on my grocery store hunt. He’s very nice to me, and told me if he had enough money he’d come to America and ask my mother if he could buy me. I think it was complimentary. I told my mother a few hours after, and she requested that I relay the message that she is fully willing to sell me at any time.

We got home around 9 pm and started the process. I had onions, green peppers, garlic and carrots straight from some market, which needed disinfected. Benson, Shaloo’s

roommate, hauled out some chemical substance that was purple and we washed and set the vegetables in that for ~20 mins. The stove is propane (like, the type where you light a match and hope it doesn’t explode), so we had some fun figuring out the right temperature to melt but not burn butter and sugar on the stove. It took about 45 mins to cut all the vegetables and get a home for everything on the stove, but eventually it was going quite well. It was a hot night though, and I remembered being a child and my mother refusing to cook for me on hot summer days because it made the house so warm. On those days, I ate apples and sandwiches. I forgot that lesson though, and was dying of heat about 15 mins in. Eventually, it boiled down and I put the pasta and the sauce together

and…voila! It turned out very well, and was almost the same as home! We celebrated with more wine and brie and some Michael Jackson.

Benson washed all our dishes in the morning, after explicitly being asked not to, while I took pictures of the awesome house and washed my clothes, by hand, in the bathroom sink. I never realized how much I value a washer and dryer, but I think I’ll add it to the list of things I cannot live without. Aside from my brief encounter with a large cockroach outside the apartment, it has been mostly a nice place to stay, with everything I need magically appearing from the cook, Pascaline.

Supper was a success! This was the first time Shaloo had cooked in his house, and I’m pretty impressed that between us we figured out how to run everything. Though, much credit should probably go to Benson, as we wouldn’t have gotten past the “wash the vegetables” stage without him.