Food in Uganda

It will be hard to top my previous post about the riot though I should write about some of the food here.

I haven’t had the chance to try any strange foods yet but there have been some surprises. A common street food here is the rolex. It is a pancake (chipati) with egg and onion inside. I have also been getting these really tasty BBQ skewers. They leave my mouth feel waxy after 3 of them but I haven’t gotten sick so I keep getting them.

The egg part of the rolex being prepared

Really good BBQ street meat

I was also surprised one day on the construction site when I was offered popcorn. Here I am in a place with no running water or electricity, poverty all around and yet, they have popcorn. 

Popcorn!

Otherwise, common food is quite bland due to the poverty. Many people have to eat rice, beans, potato, posho or matoke. I'm fortunate that at home I am often spoiled with surprises like egg, French toast, meat, samosas and other foods. I bought some chilli sauce which adds a lot of flavour too and is quite popular around the house.

French toast!

Getting my hands on western food has been a bit challenging. There’s only one place that has burgers and pizza in my small Mukono town and the price is higher than in Australia. And as is true back at home, the more you pay for food, the longer you sit there waiting for it like a fool. I waited over 30 minutes for a AUD $11.50 burger. Good and big but definitely not coming back!

While walking around Kampala the other day I came across the only western franchise here which is a Nando’s restaurant. It was not what I expected and looked like the simplest of take-away store fronts in a food court. Not even worth taking a photo of. There was also a Dominos restaurant nearby but I don’t think it was real as in addition to pizza, it served chicken, chips and burgers as well. The logo was a bit off too. 

Finally, Nutella is very expensive, along with other stuff from home such as Cadbury chocolate. It’s pretty much the same price, if not more in the case of Nutella.