TO

For lunch today we were invited to eat at the NGO because the women were making the traditional meal of TO. TO is exactly what ugali is in Kenya, it’s is ground up corn meal that is cooked with water to crate a sponge like substance. It is basically the African rice because it doesn’t really have any nutritious value other than it filled up your stomach and you use it to scoop up the veggies. At first the woman set a huge pot of water on burner and waited for it to boil. Then she took some of the corn meal and mixed it with some cold water until it was a bit cloudy and then she dumped the mixture into the boiling water. She used two long pieces of metal to hook onto the sides of the pot and then sat on the long handles to brace the pot on top of the burner before she was about to stir. (I took pictures and a video if you’re confused already) I’ll try to upload them tomorrow. She stirred and stirred like crazy and then let the pot boil for 10-15 minutes. When we came back she grabbed a wooden spoon the size of my leg and had another girl sit on the metal rods to stabilize while she stirred this thick mixture. The women were sweating up a storm; it made making risotto look like child’s play. After stirring until it was too thick to stir any longer the woman took a traditional bowl made from a fruit and dipped it into the water to scoop up a little bowl of it and place it on a cool plate. She did this about 50 times to make a whole bowl of little patties. We then washed our right hand in a bucket of water and ate all together. The sauce was a green, veggie mixture with a fish base; it tasted a lot better than the food I eat at work.