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A whole different kind of “Flashback Friday”

May 28, 2010 by 4 Comments
tomatolady

Hello and happy Memorial Day Weekend everybody! I am in Swaziland right now at the first night of the Bush Fire International Music Festival (can I say YEAH?!!) and won’t be blogging for the next few days. I thought this was a good opportunity for a different kind of “Flashback Friday” post.

When I left for Mozambique in September 2008, I began blogging sporadically about my experiences. I started reading blogs (mostly of the healthy living type) around September of 2009 and finally in February decided to start my own, with the help of my amazing father who not only is a great webmaster but also insanely patient with my demands and his regular access to internet/electricity/civilization helps too. Anyway, I started my blog at the beginning of March but didn’t tell anyone about it until midway through April, once I felt comfortable enough. That means I have a whole lot of stuff on here—some pretty cool, some pretty bad—that no one besides myself and my father have seen. I feel like these first three months of blogging (and one month of really trying to become part of the amazing blog community) have been awesome and I wanted to “flash back” to some of those secret posts, for anyone bored over the weekend who would like to read a little more! I have had so much fun getting started with P&P and I want to thank you all for your support and kind words! It has been one of the highlights of the last couple months for me, so THANKS!

Posts that Happy/Healthy Living Bloggies Would Find Funny and/or Interesting

T.I.A.: This Is Africa (Snapshots from Moz life)

Posts with pretty pictures of pretty African things

I hope that some of these are interesting! Once I get back, I will have a Swaziland recap as well as a lot of other posts I have been working on including another Island trip, a post about the work I do here in Mozambique, realities of African “healthy living”, and the story of my thatched roof getting ripped out (that was fun).  And June means my birthday (the 9th! YAY!) and the World Cup! If anyone wants to write a guest post for me in June… let me know : ) Mom?

Talk to you soon!

What are you up to this Memorial Day weekend?

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    Off to Swazi… and Missing My Sister

    May 26, 2010 by 6 Comments
    CAIT4x4

    I have been looking forward to this weekend for MONTHS, and I cannot believe it is really here! May has been a pretty rough month at times with various causes of stress, but the next month is shaping up to be absolutely amazing! Everything is getting better. And it all starts NOW.

    I am heading down to Maputo, where I will meet up with some other Peace Corps friends to cross the border into Swaziland on Friday morning for the Bush Fire Festival. This is a huge international music fest right in a game reserve in Swaziland with different stages, events, bands, and a variety of other awesomeness from Friday through Sunday! I didn’t get a chance to go last year (probably because I had never heard of it) and am looking forward to an AMAZING time with some of my favorite people in Africa!

    From a health aspect, traveling in Africa can be REALLY stressful, but I really try to keep it all in perspective. I hope they have some different foods in Swazi to try! And my running clothes are packed… running through a game reserve anyone? : ) I guess getting chased by a lion on my morning run would really force me to get some speed work in…

    Plus, I will get a chance to do some grocery shopping in Maputo, eat at some decent restaurants and take a hot shower or two—SCORE, especially because of how painful my cold shower has been lately (there is nothing like getting out from under three blankets, stripping off my sweatpants, jacket, and two shirts, to get into a shower that is even colder than the air. Brrr!!!)

    I also have a follow up medical appointment in Maputo, about two months after I had my last trip for the same reasons (check out the travelogue and restaurant tour from that trip). I hope everything is okay (I had some complication in my stomach/esophagus that presented as serious chest pain), but my health has been pretty poor throughout the last few weeks, so we will see! Fingers crossed.

    As excited as I am about this trip, my heart isn’t completely here. One of the tough realities of living overseas is that you miss a LOT. And this weekend is probably one of the hardest things yet to miss (in addition to holidays and weddings of my close friends). My little sister is graduating from college this weekend. It is a huge production, a family affair, and my heart breaks to not be there. She also turns 22 on Thursday. I feel like I have missed her “grow up”—when I left she was my little sister, about halfway through college, still figuring things out. Now she is a grown woman, graduating from Princeton and starting grad school in the fall on her own. I wish I could be there with here, but unfortunately unless I develop teleportation skills in the next day or so, I can only wish her congratulations from afar.

    Have you seen a cuter kid??

    It’s just my sister and me in our family, plus my mom and dad, of course. As a kid, I was the typical older sister, bossing her around like crazy, beating her down constantly to make myself feel better, and making her do stupid stuff like wear silly costumes and put lipstick on her face to make home videos, and she put up with me. God only knows why. (Sorry, Caitlin.) We competed in soccer (she was WAY better… collegiate athlete anyone??) and horseback riding and other similar activities, and we definitely had our spats (like when she stole my diary and read it out loud on the school bus and I bawled in the office for an hour waiting for mommy to get there and make everything right again) but it was pretty much all good.

    HS decades dance... 50s and 70s!

    In high school, we were polar opposites. Both smart ad involved, but I was the straight-edge, teacher’s pet, youth-group dance team princess and my sister was… well, a more NORMAL high schooler. This led to all sorts of conflict–I resented her dating all the guys in my class and always sneaking out to parties, under the guise of being embarrassed by her but really being jealous because I wasn’t dating and wasn’t getting invited to those parties… and she resented me for making it WAY harder on her (older children are supposed to pave the way for the younger, and my boring straight edge existence definitely paved the way for no one).

    "Come on Dad, do we STILL have to take pictures on the first day of school?"

    But then we grew up and matured and went our own ways. I headed to college in Los Angeles, she came and visited me. Two years later, she headed out to Jersey, I visited a handful of times. I got a life in college and she settled down. We finally met in the middle. And all of a sudden, I found I could talk to her about boys and parties and friendships and relationships and life and family and everything in between. And I don’t know what moment it changed or if it is just growing up, but somewhere down that line, she became my best friend.

    In Cabo San Lucas, 2005

    I’m missing her graduation, and for that I am infinitely sad (but to be honest, I am equally bummed about missing these booze-filled Princeton “reunions” of lore as the ceremony itself…) and when I get home, she will be off on her own in a new place. I feel like I missed this great transition in her life by spending these two years in Africa. But what I do know, is we have the rest of our lives to get closer and to make more memories, and I am the luckiest girl in the world to have a sister like Caitlin. Happy Graduation and Happy Birthday, Sissy. I love you!

    That's my girl... never met a keg she didn't like.

    Do you have a sister? What is your relationship like with that person? How much did it change since your childhood?

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    Sick Day Fine Dining

    May 24, 2010 by 12 Comments
    CR25hcsopen

    After working all through last weekend and not exactly having any time to relax (besides the banana bread making), I ended up getting pretty sick on Monday and having to go home. Pretty miserable. Tuesday, I still was not 100%, but I had the right to a day off after working all weekend, so I decided to make the absolute best of it that I could. PHYSICAL/MENTAL HEALTH DAY!

    One thing that has been a challenge for me lately is listening to my body.  I am getting better at eating what I feel like I need, but with health and rest it has been hard. I have just been feeling “off” for a bit and I’m not sure if it is due to health problems or stress/anxiety or something else entirely. I struggle with guilt when it comes to taking a day off or staying home (even when I have the right to it), which perhaps prevents me from fully getting the rest I need. This is something I am committing to improving upon, though. If I am tired, I’m going to rest. If I am sick, I am going home. There it is. : )

    My day started with “sleeping in” until around 6:15. This is really late for me to be rolling out of bed. I hadn´t exercised the day before with how crappy I was feeling, so I was rearing to go. Started my day with a Z-bar. How weird for a blogger in Africa! I have some Z-bars and Clif bars in my stash that I treat myself to very sparingly (because I will be so sad when they run out and I can´t replace them. My only complaint is that I can eat these in two bites.)

    Good: Z bar.

    Bad: two bites.

    Wow, it feels really weird to post a picture of a bar. I never blog like that. Seeing as I am lucky to get online once in a blue moon, I am NEVER going to be documenting daily eats. Not my thing, anyways.

    Check out my workout space. That is my bed with a laptop on it. Obviously. This is how I roll.

    Good: breaking a sweat through levels 3 and 2 of the 30-Day Shred.

    Bad: Having to stop in level 1 because I had intense stomach pains, non exercise related :( Boo. Oww! Mom!

    Good: recovering from said workout/pains with a pancake the size of my face.

    Literally. I took a picture to show that it was, quite literally, the size of my face. Can I call this a panface?

    This is my new look for those of you who were wondering. I call it, “take a shower and don´t bother doing anything else. Poof, you´re done!”

    Going along with the “today is special” (aka it is my first day off in a long time, I am stressed and I deserve it!) mentality, I cracked open another hoarded US commodity: Whole Foods Whole-Wheat Pancake Mix. I forgot the oil (just used the 1/3c batter and an egg and a drizzle of milk) but it turned out kind of delicious. Although I could put PB, banana and cinnamon on cardboard and probably still eat it.

    Although I love my pancakes. Though it was nice to just make one huge one and call it a morning. One dish to wash = awesome.

    Also awesome: WORLD CUP TICKETS!!!

    Please ignore how unfortunate I look. Living in Africa means completely sacrificing your vanity. Which I have come to terms with… but not enough that you will see a ton of pictures of African me on my blog : ) But I am embracing the “natural beauty” mentality by necessity… embracing it : )

    So, there´s the fine dining for the day. My pancake. Just kidding. So, I live in a town with some tourist infrastructure because if you haven´t seen any of my previous posts, I live at a pretty beautiful beach. Our area has some hotels and resorts that cater to primarily South African and Zimbabwean tourists. The nicest of the  bunch: Casa Rex guesthouse.

    Casa Rex is about a 40 minute walk from my house and in my opinion, the best restaurant in town. A meal there tends to be about half of a week´s salary so it is far from a common occurance, but if anyone is ever going there, it doesn´t take much convincing for me to join as well.

    My friend Gracey, her little sister, and her sister´s two friends have been visiting us here for the last few days, and wanted to eat lunch here. I had to drag myself across town with my morning pains still in force, but I knew it would be well worth it. Making the most of that day off…

    Beautiful views from the hotel and of course there´s a woody path down to the beach… perfect Mozambique beach paradise.

    Plus a hotel and chaise lounges, of course. Am I in the Peace Corps?!?!

    Casa Rex is a place I go once in a while to escape. It is not far from my house at all, but when I am there, I am in a completely different world. It is very renewing, in a weird way. And the fact that there is bomb food doesn´t hurt a thing.

    The menu features a variety of seafood and curries and a few other items like salads and sobremesas de chorar por mais (Literally, “desserts to cry for more…” but in English the menu says “Desserts to die for.” I think I like the Portuguese better.)

    And the fact that there is bomb food doesn´t hurt either. Starts with a bread basket… with REAL BUTTER!

    I am in this weird habit of putting salt on my buttered bread. Does anyone else do this? Perhaps it comes from my adoption of the cultural behavior here that everything tastes better drenched in salt.

    And it comes with a salad. Okay, this is totally leading me on because the last several times I have eaten here (about once a month) we DIDN´T get a salad. But today we did! Score. You all don´t understand… no where here has “salads.” OR, a salad is some shredded cabbage drenched in mayo. Also, I love that cashews get thrown onto everything in Mozambique. As some of our biggest products are cashew nuts, pineapple, and coconut, the country has figured out ways to involve these three things in almost every plate you can think of.

    I love ordering tea here. The tea itself is nothing special… kind of the generic store-brand of teas… but the fact that it comes in a mini teapot with milk and sugar makes me weirdly happy for some reason. Totally takes over the table, too.

    Most of the time I come here, I order the vegetable curry because it is the cheapest thing on the menu (approximately $9… which is a LOT for Africa/Peace Corps) and also because 1. it has veggies 2. it is yummy and 3. it always comes with a platter of random things to eat with it. Today I got mango piri-piri (mango pieces marinated in chili pepper and oil), some generic salsa, jam and coconut. Oh and raisins. I just popped those all into my mouth like candy as the meal went on. Feels like free food, even though I am paying $9 (GASP!) for it…

    Veggie curry is always a surprise. Today it had carrots, green beans, eggplant, and potato. Which is impressive for Mozambique, but one of the lesser veggie curries I have eaten here. Really hits home about seasonal eating though. What you get, you get. And plus, it comes with coconut rice, a tortilla (the only place I have gotten a tortilla in town… reason enough for spending the $9!) and banana garnish. Really feels like a different world.

    So while I slummed it with my “cheap” veggie plate, Gracey and co. went for the gold: the seafood platter. at 1,000 meticais, it is not cheap, but it comes with crabs, squid, clams, prawns, and fish, all probably freshly caught that morning right on the beach outside the hotel. Okay, and for $33, I guess that is pretty cheap. This thing was HUGE!!! And that is exactly what she said.

    And what is a seafood platter without fries? It came with fries and a bowl of coconut rice, for carby goodness. And these are actually REAL fries. I love them in the States, but never order them here cuz they are usually just limp slices of potato literally dripping grease. You need a little crunch, people.

    To round out their meal (split between all the girls), they ordered a veggie stirfry. Which was essentially my meal without the curry seasonings, banana and awesome plate of fun.

    Look at this table! We were full up and ready to dig in. After I took this, one of the managers came to take a picture of all of us.

    I am the redhead with the crazy hair second from the left, to the right of me is Gracey, and we are surrounded by her sister and friends. What a lunch! And in Mozambique! In my town! Okay, after I post about this meal I can officially no longer pretend to be a bad ass. Darn it.

    Okay, so probably the whole reason that I wanted to write this post was so I could write about the dessert that apparently makes you cry for more. Known as the “hot chocolate sin”, it looks pretty unassuming on the plate. Especially sad that there was no ice cream in town, so it was a lonely little cake all by itself.

    But take a closer look…

    LAVA CAKE!!! Omg die happy.

    After this meal, the stomach pains combined with the ridiculous fullness to make a rather slow and awkward walk home, where I enjoyed the rest of my sick day off with Breaking Dawn (am really in a state right now where I NEED my mindless literature). The girls went out to dinner but I stayed in and just enjoyed some peace and quiet. Which was just what I needed. It is hard to feel like you are “missing out” on social events, but I have gotten to a place where I can finally listen to my body better and say “no, I need to stay in tonight.”

    Despite the actual sick part, this was a pretty darn good sick day. I needed a break, and I got one… a little respite in the ocean of craziness!

    Do you ever take mental health days? Or how do you get your relaxation and recovery in? What are your favorite things to do on days off?

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    FLASHBACK FRIDAY: VEGAS.

    May 21, 2010 by 13 Comments
    vegasgirlsfountain

    Whoever said that ANYTHING ever stayed in Vegas totally lied. But for me, that’s okay. I love Vegas. Seems kind of funny for a girl who isn’t a big drinker, partier, gambler, or pretty much any of the other things Vegas is known for, but some of the best times of my life have happened in the LV. Being a popular haunt with UCLA student groups (just a 4.5 hour drive and you’re free to wander around on the street until 8am with booze in your hand! HOORAY!), I made seven trips to Vegas during my junior and senior years of college. It’s become a Memorial Day tradition of sorts, one that I will have to miss for the second consecutive year now (that whole Africa thing gets in the way…), which pains me to no end. Last year I even looked up airfare, you know, hypothetically. This year I am blogging instead. Healthier. Next year, God willing, I will get my Vegas fill once again.

    Going as a broke college student who didn’t really have any interest in waiting 4 hours to get into Tao or Pure, or planting myself at the blackjack table, or finding a random stranger to make bad decisions with, nor having any money to explore the fabulous culinary scene, my favorite Vegas memories are a little funny. But I still think they merit being shared.

    Without further ado, I present my “10 favorite things for poor young people who don’t love gambling, clubbing, or getting sloppy drunk to do in Sin City.”

    10. Buy Fat Tuesday’s and wander the Vegas strip.

    Simple enough. Buy booze and walk around and check out the lights and the passing scene. Fatty T’s will always remind me of college—the huge reusable mug with the sippy straw, filled with what seemed like liters of the Cat 5 Hurricane (rum punch, with an extra shot of 151 or Everclear, please!). I started getting “too old” for Fat Tuesday’s towards the end there, literally getting sick my last two trips from the pure sugar—here I was, thinking I would NEVER in my life say something was “too sweet”! But regardless, it’s just something you have to do.

    9. …Until McDonald’s changes to its breakfast menu. Eat breakfast. THEN you can go to sleep.

    Simple too. Walk around til 5:30 in the morning. Hit Mickey D’s on the center strip. Buy something greasy and delicious. (I’m thinking McGriddle.) Perfect way to end the evening, and greet the new day!

    8. Take in all of Vegas’ completely free tourist attractions.

    My personal favorite: the Bellagio lobby, with the blown Venetian glass ceiling. The amazing gardens, mini fountains, oh and the biggest chocolate fountain ever… or one of them. 

    Check out the lions at MGM grand; feel really bad for them; still kind of be glad that they are there. Watch the volcano explode at the Mirage. Wander through the Flamingos at the hotel with the same name.

    6. Grab a seat at the penny slots with a friend or two.

    Load about five bucks. Play very slowly. One line per roll. Meaning there is pretty much no way you are going to win any money. But if you sit there through two or three complimentary gin & tonics, you’ve made money. This is how I take the house in Vegas.

    5. Eat until you hate yourself, at the Bellagio’s champagne brunch (if you like the classic, old-money brunch feel) or at Planet Hollywood’s Spice Market Buffet (if you like cuisine from all around the world). God, if only they had doggie bags.

    4. See a stupid show with your friends.

    Vegas is jam packed with entertainment, and it ranges from the classy (Cirque do Soleil) to the trashy (strip shows of all kinds) to the absurd (Pet Theatre?!). Find something cheap. Go with a group. Preferably a little under the influence. May I recommend a magic show? Dirk Arthur will forever live in infamy.

    3. Spend an evening at Nine Fine Irishmen.

    Many Vegas establishments are super overpriced, super trashy or way too classy (as in, if you aren’t getting $200 bottle service, don’t bother). Nine Fine Irishmen, an Irish pub in the amazing New York New York, kicks them all to the curb.  Instead of pulsing rap, you have a live band (every night but Tuesday) playing awesome Irish rock until a little after midnight, then they take a break and come back and play covers of popular songs. It’s light inside, loud and lively but easy to carry on conversations, and there is cider on tap. I could go to Vegas and only step into this one bar and be very satisfied.

    2. See Love at the Mirage.

    Okay, since the cheapest tickets are a little over $100 I couldn’t make this my number one thing to do in Vegas (being a “cheap” list and all…), but otherwise it would have been. This  Beatles-themed Cirque do Soleil show was one of the most amazing things I have ever seen in my life. There are no words. I listen to the soundtrack all the time. You don’t have to be a Beatles fanatic either—I would be shocked to meet anyone who saw this show and didn’t fall in love with it. I have considered going to Vegas for a night to see this show and then going home again. It is that good.

    1. Hang out in front of the Bellagio fountains and watch the show.

    This is such a cliché Vegas thing, but the Bellagio fountains rank in the top few spots of my favorite places in the world. Catch the fountain shows every 15 minutes or so at night. Not as spectacular during the day, but sometimes you can practically be alone there, especially in the morning when everyone else is just getting to bed, which is a great experience. I love the fountains. Especially God bless the USA. And I´m proud to be an American…

    For any of my friends reading this who are going to be there this weekend—I’m 10,000 miles away, but I am there in spirit. Grab a Fat Tuesdays (but don’t get sick) and toast the fountains for me. Can’t wait for next Memorial Day… I’ve got a lot of catching up to do.

    Viva Las Vegas!

    Have you ever been to Vegas? What was your favorite thing that you did? Have you done any of these things on this list?

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    Maputo Restaurant Tour 2010

    May 19, 2010 by 13 Comments
    MAPUTO9caview

    First of all, thanks for all the comments on my last post. It was so great reading what you all had to say and really made my day :)

    Last week, I published A Maputo Travelogue, a random post documenting a rather interesting trip to Maputo, the Mozambican capital, during which I spent a week wandering the city alone while dealing with some medical issues. How I filled the majority of my free time: eating! For any foodie in Mozambique, Maputo is perhaps the ONE place (okay, definitely the only place) where you have a ton of interesting options. I documented my eating my way through Maputo here, for anyone who you know, MIGHT randomly find themselves in the Mozambican capital and need a restaurant recommendation. : )

    Vintage India (Avenida Julius Nyerere right north of Avenida 24 de Julho): a real Indian restaurant with a several page menu that leaves a lot to the imagination. (Descriptions like “spicy goodness”) only tell you so much. But it has naan and appetizers and soup and is pretty legit Indian food. Only problem is it seems to randomly close for weeks at a time. No problem. This Is Africa. That and the slightly creepy dark interior that scares me a little bit… but still, this is always a must-visit. The coconut lamb dish is pretty amazing. I wish I could tell you the name but it is probably three different Indian words that I cannot remember.

     Xhova Inter-Thai Restaurant: nestled into the neighborhood between Polana Shopping Center and Hotel Cardoso, this is my favorite restaurant. REAL THAI FOOD! I come here every time I am in Maputo, always telling myself that I will take half of the huge portion to go and instead always leaving a clean plate on the table. The setting is strangely intimate, you can watch the chef cook if you want, and there are fish. Who can argue with that? Am I the only one who gets kind of strangely excited when there is a koi pond or a fish or lobster tank in a restaurant? I swear, I am five years old inside.

    The menu is filled with pictures of dishes that don’t exactly spike my appetite. It makes me realize that if I don’t start taking pictures of my food no one will read this blog anymore! Work in progress, right… I always get the pad thai. Number 604. Let´s see how close it looks to the picture…

    Maybe that is the benefit of ugly food pictures. No letdown when it actually arrives! Unlike any American fast food establishment. Those pictures are false advertising. Hmmph.

    Reading material on this lovely day: Cosmo in Portuguese. I don’t like Cosmo anymore because I kind of feel my brain cells dying one by one as I read it, but I figured that in Portuguese it would be sufficiently mind numbing. (The other magazine I considered at the newsstand was a health magazine—think the Portuguese version of Self—but the huge cover had a woman in her underwear with a tape measure wrapped around her waist on it and THAT was just too embarrassing for me.)

    guilty pleasure trash in any language.

    Everything is better with piri piri.

    Café Acacia (Next to Hotel Cardoso on Avenida Patrice Lumumba): this is my place of Zen in Maputo. I love cafes, and just being able to sit in a peaceful place and just BE, with a book or a cup of coffee or only my own thoughts for company. I spent a ton of time here just reading and journaling and pondering the meaning of life. (Being alone for a week in a big city is a strangely lonely yet intimate experience.) Multiple coffees and teas were consumed. The menu even has a kid´s menu with chicken nuggets and fish fingers on it. I have to order that sometime. I mean, who knew that chicken nuggets transcended geographical, cultural, and lingustic borders?!?! And I am pretty sure the fish fingers scared me a little bit, too…

    beautiful.

    And nothing beats the view. It almost makes Maputo seem beautiful. The park that it is in even has a diccionário for the turistas to learn some Portuguese and Changana/Ronga words.

    Here you go... practice!

    Um, this hardly counts as a restaurant but Maputo has a MOVIE THEATER. I mentioned this briefly in my other post. It’s incredibly… unsophisticated, and every time I walk in I am the only one there, and I was so desperate to fill time on this trip that I went to see the same movie (Couples Therapy) a second time just so I could buy popcorn and sit there for about an hour while I ate it. This is how exciting my life is. Buying a ticket to a movie I saw two nights ago, just so I could go inside to eat some stale popcorn. Again. And then walk out after I got TOO bored. Man, my social life… may or may not leave something to be desired.

    I think this was dinner two separate nights. Sweet popcorn! Amazing.

    Café Sol: Okay, this might be tied for my zen spot. Well, maybe the setting is not quite as zern as Acacia, but food wise, this is my favorite place. A Café started by ex-Peace Corps Volunteers, it caters to expatriates with REAL BAGELS and CREAM CHEESE! (This is the only place in Mozambique—yes, the whole country—with bagels. Hence why I struggled to make them myself not so long ago.) It also has burritos, paninis, and some salads on the menu. This is the biggest culture shock ever, walking in here. Oh, and ICED COFFEE.

    You all seriously have no idea how exciting this is. I would make the ten hour trip just to come to this café and get an iced coffee, a veggie Panini and a chocolate chip cookie.

    I actually cannot go to Maputo without buying a chocolate chip cookie at Café Sol. If it was at an American bakery, I don’t think you would see many food bloggers posting “OMG HOLY YUM LIKE BEST COOKIE EVERRRRRRRRRRRR”, but it’s the best I have found in Mozambique and that has to mean something. I saved some of the milk that came with the iced coffee so I could end my lunch with milk and cookies. So common, yet so special and rare for me!

    milk and cookies. normalcy, God bless you.

    Mundo´s Mozambique (Corner of Julius Nyerere and Eduardo Mondlane): the king of expat restaurants, this thatch-roof street side establishment has tons of TVs playing sporting events, beer on tap, and HUGE portions of everything from pizza to bacon cheeseburgers. (Also probably the only place in the country with bacon cheeseburgers.) They also have a brownie sundae (!) and white hot chocolate (!!!) which are to die for. I went here for dinner alone the night before a medical appointment that meant I was going to not be able to eat from the time I woke up until dinner. Which is normal life for many people but absolute sheer torture for me. I SHOULD have gotten the bacon cheeseburger (protein and fat and carbs and French fries = not hungry for a while…) but I went with the thai vegetarian wrap instead (craving some nutrients), sub a salad for the fries please. Well, check out my plate.

    I am not sure how much nutrients my veggie wrap had but I am sure there was some in there alongside the bottle of Thai marinade. This was actually pretty good but I am SO getting the burger next time.

    BACON CHEESEBURGER!!! What was I thinking...

    Um, they have a shooter called "Pancake." If only I was allowed to drink...

    To break my fast post traumatizing medical procedure (think, being given the highest dosage of anesthetic and having it not put you out, so the doctor deciding to just do the procedure anyway, involving sticking a two foot tube down your throat—not something I am eager to repeat again anytime soon. Except I have to go back in two weeks…) I had a once-in-a-lifetime eating experience: KFC. In Mozambique. I documented this interesting experience already and suffice it to say I won’t be going back. Except maybe for the soft-serve ice cream. Because again, soft serve ice cream is always worth it.

    Aska (JAT building on Avenida 25 de Setembro): I JUST discovered a Maputo SUSHI restaurant this trip, and all I have to say is, THANK GOD. Well, it would have been really nice to be eating sushi all this time BUT my wallet could not afford it. I already documented my sushi saudades and this restaurant (check out how ugly my homemade sushi was…) so I won’t go on about it here. This was my most expensive meal of ALL of these featured here and definitely the LEAST filling… but probably the most exciting. SUSHI IN AFRICA!

    Nautilus Pastelaria e Padaria: Nautilus is a Maputo institution, a remembrance of the Portuguese colonial café culture, which serves a variety of decent dishes, but the best thing here is the pão de leite (bread made with milk). This looks like a croissant but the texture is nothing like that—not flaky, more like super soft, slightly sweet, melt-in-your-mouth delicious bread. I think I ate three of these on one day. And they cost what, 30 cents? If you are EVER in Maputo, YOU MUST BUY PÃO DE LEITE. It is an institution in itself. And see this sign? This HUGE SIGN that says PÂO (bread) with an arrow pointing to the door, that lights up at night? Can’t exactly miss THAT…

    Oh pão de leite, you complete me.

    Gianni Sorveteria: ICE CREAM! This is one of those things that you just have to get when you are in Maputo, because it is so rare anywhere else. There are a few different ice cream shops throughout Maputo, but even still they are pretty rare. This one is my favorite not necessarily for quality (though at this point, ANYTHING resembling ice cream is good ice cream) but for the ambiance. Can´t help being happy in a pink, blue and green ice cream shop with children´s paintings of ice cream cones everywhere. Not only does this place have adorable decorations, but they have pancakes and waffles on the menu. My kind of place! I love an ice cream shop where I can get a scoop of canela (cinnamon) on top of a beautiful, powdered-sugared waffle.

    Oh, ice cream and waffles... you complete me, too.

    PHEW. What a week. And I didn´t even succeed in hitting all the places I wanted to (there is a steakhouse at the casino… yes, there is a casino; a new Italian place that is supposed to be lovely and they serve GNOCCHI…) but I think I did pretty well. I am going to be stopping through Maputo on my way back from Swaziland (!) next weekend, so I will try to make the steakhouse happen.

    Maputo will never be a leading culinary destination (that is a diplomatic statement at best) but at least I can go and have foodie adventures! When I return to America, will I spend entire days wandering down streets asking to see the menu at every restaurant I pass? Here´s hoping.

    How do you pick restaurants? Do you tend just to wander in randomly or go from other people´s recommendations?  Would YOU have gotten the bacon cheeseburger? :) Ah, next time…

     

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    Weekend Update, Moz Edition: Bananas, Balance, and Fat Milk

    May 16, 2010 by 24 Comments
    BBalldone

    Requisite Sunday Musings

    Sunday afternoon. Doesn’t really feel like a Sunday, because instead of getting geared up for another week after a relaxing weekend, I had to work all day BOTH days, so I’ve been at the office from 8-5ish the last seven days, and am going back tomorrow. So now my body and brain are just CONFUSED. This should be a good post…

    In the latest Moz news, apparently in addition to our regular power outages, our city has decided that we won’t have electricity on Saturdays before 6PM at least until the end of the year. That means my day of rest will have no light, no internet, no movies or TV, etc. Nothing like being forced to sit in your dark hut and do nothing! It really is kind of nice, being forced to do nothing. And I feel real sexy wearing a headlamp all the time.

    We are more than halfway through May, and como o tempo voa (how the time flies)! At the beginning of the month I set some goals for myself. How am I doing? Well,  finished Great Expectations (finally) and now have moved to something even more intellectual: rereading the Twilight series. Sorry bout it. Runs: five, including one for over two hours, right on track there. Flossing: fail. Nothing else needs to be said about that. I am not making goals for June. I am goal’ed out for now. Maybe I will just recommit to flossing. Ew.

    Another thing mentioned in my goals was having a bunch of trainings for work. (I know I still haven’t talked about what I DO in Mozambique–it’s coming.) And those have been the cause of MUCH stress. There has been a lot of cocoa and cookies in my life recently, and that’s how I know I’ve been stressed. Because let’s face it, cocoa and cookies always help. (Correction: eating a pack of 15 cookies every day for a week just because you’re stressed and they cost 30 cents, doesn’t actually help anyone.) In brighter news, two weeks from this weekend I will be in Swaziland at a music fest, a month from today I will be in South Africa for the WORLD CUP, and I just bought a plane ticket to Thailand. Who can complain?

    I have been having lots of trouble with my work computer, because it is European but often reverts to a English keyboard. So all the punctuation is not where it is supposed to be. This doesn’t seem like a big deal, but I have a bad habit of ending lots of blog comments with a smiley face. I want to get better at this, I truly do. (Do I hear another goal coming on?) Because ” : ) ” is just not always necessary. It has become a big problem, though, with the punctuation constantly changing on my keyboard. Because I have unintentionally left a lot of comments like this:

    “I LOVE YOUR BLOG!!! >( “

    Yeah, pretty sure THAT isn’t winning me any blog friends.

    Speaking of comments, I just want to say a big THANK YOU to anyone who has been reading my blog over the last few weeks! Seriously, I get giddy every time someone leaves a comment. I created P&P to have a creative outlet for myself when I am out here in Mozambique and knowing that there is a whole audience out there with similar interests that is friendly and supportive, really helps me feel less isolated and closer to “home” than I often feel otherwise (11,000 miles will do that to you).

    But with that being said… I have only six months left in Mozambique, as of last weekend. Six months feels like nothing; it has been almost 20. And to be honest, I am so excited to go home. I can’t stop thinking about it: from all the food I’m going to eat, to all the hot showers I am going to take, to the marathon I am going to run, and a million other things that fall under the “WHEN I GO HOME” category. And this is well and good but…

    I am scared I am missing my Now.

    I have always been a planner… someone who is constantly looking ahead to the next thing, the next big change, the next step. And that’s okay, but not when it hinders my ability to fully experience my Present. And here, thinking about “after” is a coping mechanism, because lets face it: living in an African village, far, far, away from the people, places, culture, food, and so on that you know and love, can kind of suck sometimes. Sure, it’s amazing a lot of the time. But it is also REALLY HARD. And an easy way to cope with it is to keep my head in the future, when life will make more sense.

    Sure, it’s okay to imagine a world where there is electricity on Saturdays, where the toilet paper has more than one ply, where I don’t eat chicken and rice for six meals in a row, where cockroaches aren’t my bedfellows. It’s okay. But the more time I spend thinking about LATER, the less I am thinking about NOW. And tomorrow’s never guaranteed, right? No day but today?

    I’m in the homestretch now. Six months. Six measly months. And then Peace Corps is over, forever. And I don’t want to look back on this time and realize that I missed out by wishing it would go by faster. I have a card in my room that says “Any given moment can change your life… you just have to BE there.”

    And I want to BE there, down the homestretch. Fully experience this crazy life that I have here. Even when it is hard.

    Tales from the Crypt My Mozambican Kitchen

    In foodie news... this weekend I wanted to make Brandi’s Nutella Marbled Banana Bread. And sure, I just had Saturday evening, but it had been a rough day and I figured baking would be therapeutic. (Note to self for future reference: when you have already tried to console yourself with cookies, biscuits, and rusks on a bad day, DON’T break out the Nutella.) I had some bananas (they finally reappeared after nearly a month disappearance) rotting ripening on the table, and decided to just go for it.

    First problem: the pan. See, I don’t have a loaf pan. I have three choices: a huge bundt cake pan, a mini loaf pan the size of my hand, or six muffins the size of my face.

    I picked the bundt cake. Next problem: the ingredients. Brandi’s posted recipe is awesome, but it calls for applesauce. Which would involve 1. having apples and then 2. making applesauce from scratch. So I used real very fake butter instead. Continuing with my UNhealthy substitutions, I used vegetable oil instead (no canola on this continent). And walnuts instead of hazelnuts because, well, it’s a miracle I even HAVE walnuts. Correction: HAD walnuts. My “whole wheat” flour is super-refined white flour with wheat flakes in it. I also threw in some baking powder just in case cuz I wasn’t sure my baking soda would work. I’m not even sure if it is actual baking soda.

    And the milk! The recipe called for buttermilk. Yeah, right. I went to three stores today to find some long life milk. AKA, so chemically processed it can sit on the shelf for two years and then once you open it it goes bad in like two days. Well, I finally succeeded. But here’s the story. In the States, we have whole milk and skim milk. In Portuguese, it’s leite gordo or leite magro. Literally, FAT milk or SKINNY milk. And of course, I can only get FAT milk 95% of the time. Talk about a hit on the self esteem. My fat milk just sitting there, mocking me. “Come and get me, fatty!” And so I did.

    So I think I found my true calling as a blogger: taking other people’s great recipes and Africanizing them, making them all unhealthy again. “Read MY blog for inspiration, guys!!! I use fake butter, the wrong nuts and FATTY milk! This is the REAL DEAL!!!” I think I just found a new tagline for my blog.

    I should mention that as soon as I greased the pan, my electricity cut out, leaving me in the pitch darkness. (But it was after six…) so I did all my preparing in the dark. Well, with my headlamp, which means at any given point I had half a dozen mosquitoes buzzing around my face, in my eyes, or up my nose. Needless to say, I wasn’t taking too many pictures. In my confusion, I mixed everything together in the completely wrong order. I did get to take out some of the stress by “chopping” my nuts Mozambican style–by pulverizing them with a big stick.

    Lights came on just in time for the nutella swirl. Also just in time for me to eat my day’s worth of calories straight from the jar. Does anyone else have this problem with nutella? It may be the death of me. Oh, and I only burned myself about three times trying to dig around in our oven for this stupid pan. Nothing like the smell of burning flesh to ruin the smell of fresh banana bread. Looked done after 20 minutes…

    But wasn’t. (Don’t ask me at what temp I cooked it, my stove has no gauge.) 7 more minutes and it was definitely done. A couple of bites one slice two slices three slices later and I was thoroughly convinced that this is one of the best things I have ever cooked… ever. Which as anyone knows who has seen this blog, is not saying much of anything.

    Despite the unhealthiness (or maybe because of it… can I get an amen for fat milk?), the power outage, moldy bananas, and the general confusion of the whole process. We’ll call it a success. And at least for this whole baking process… I was living in the moment. :) And right now, that’s exactly where I need to be.

    Are you a live-in-the-moment person, or are you often looking to the future? How do you live in the present moment? Any advice?

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