It is hard to follow some of Mark's epic posts, being as they are far more eloquent than when I write. But, he told me to add some perspective of food in Malawi, so I'll give it a shot.
I'm not a chef (though I always said if I didn't get accepted to medical school I would go to culinary school), but I have always been interested in cooking and nutrition. I am now working in Malawi doing research with children affected by both severe and moderate acute malnutrition. I work for an NGO called Project Peanut Butter (www.projectpeanutbutter.org), founded and directed by a pediatrician from Washington University in St. Louis. The work I do is all about nutrition and using Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF) as treatment for children affected by kwashiorkor and marasmus in Malawi. Traditionally, our RUTF (known locally as chiponde, medically as RUTF, internationally as Plumpy'Nut) is made with milk powder, ground peanuts, oil, sugar and concentrated minerals and vitamins. I am conducting a clinical trial testing a new RUTF that uses soy flour in place of milk powder in the recipe, as soy is locally grown in Malawi and is much less expensive. (The link to my blog is somewhere in the side panel, read it if you are interested).
As Westerners, it is hard to envision life without enough food. Seventy percent of Malawians are stunted, most related to lack of proper nutrition during childhood development. My short 5'3" self often can be taller than most of the men and women I meet in the village. Yet, when I walk through the market or drive through the villages, there appears to be plenty of food. Maize is grown on every square inch of cultivatable land, rows of heaped soil can be seen on every mountain growing cassava, peas, potato, tomato, cucumber, pumpkin, carrot, pepper, broccoli, cauliflower, green beans, onions, banana, soy. Rice is sprouting from every marshy area I pass and during the mango season, thousands and thousands of mangos were piled along the side of the roads waiting to be sold for a mere 3 Kwacha per mango (and sometimes less. $1 = MK 140). Papaya, pineapple, avocado and strawberries are all natively grown in Malawi.
Yet, during the rainy season (December - March), most children eat just one meal a day. The staple food here is something called nsima, which remotely resembles something like cream of wheat, farina or polenta but is made with no spices, no salt, no coloring. It is made with maize flour and is extremely nutrient poor. To make nsima, one must simply boil maize flour in water to make a porridge. At the very last moment, you add heaps of uncooked maize flour to make a thick, unstirrable, sticky, white substance. In the end only 40% of the maize is cooked, and it is 70% water overall. Corn as a food provides very little protein and nsima is usually eaten with "relish" - boiled green leafy vegetables with some onion and tomato. At the end of the meal, you are very full of very little nutrients. Occasionally, a bit of protein is served with the meal - usually eggs, beans, goat or chicken. Meat is relatively very expensive for the average Malawian, with one chicken costing anywhere from 300-600 Kwacha (500 MK is about $3.50, the daily salary for a man working in a factory for 9 hours usually is about 160MK, not at our factory though!)
Things get remotely better after the rainy season. People are planting during the rains, and once the water dries up, harvesting begins. There are periods of the year where people even get 3 meals a day, nsima served mainly as lunch and dinner and something called phala served at breakfast. Phala can be made with any number of cereals, but often they use rice that is not cooked until all the water boils off, so there is a sort of rice pudding like texture. Those who can afford to do so will add powdered milk and sugar to the phala in the morning as sort of the Malawian version of hot cereal.
For the visiting expatriate, food in Malawi is rather lovely. I don't eat nsima very often, but with what seems to me as very little money, I am able to have almost any fruit or vegetable I want (and even ones I've never seen or heard of before), eggs, beans, fresh herbs, ginger, garlic, you name it. South Africa sends up the rest - Kellogg's Corn Flakes, All-Bran, Dannon yogurt. I have sort of become a vegetarian, but not by choice. Something about seeing anorexic looking cows walk along the dirt road, knowing that they too need RUTF therapy, makes beef carpaccio or filet mignon a bit less appetizing.
And - Caveat emptor, Let the buyer beware... wash your fruits and vegetables carefully. Gastroenteritis is no fun.
-Danielle Matilsky
I'm not a chef (though I always said if I didn't get accepted to medical school I would go to culinary school), but I have always been interested in cooking and nutrition. I am now working in Malawi doing research with children affected by both severe and moderate acute malnutrition. I work for an NGO called Project Peanut Butter (www.projectpeanutbutter.org), founded and directed by a pediatrician from Washington University in St. Louis. The work I do is all about nutrition and using Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF) as treatment for children affected by kwashiorkor and marasmus in Malawi. Traditionally, our RUTF (known locally as chiponde, medically as RUTF, internationally as Plumpy'Nut) is made with milk powder, ground peanuts, oil, sugar and concentrated minerals and vitamins. I am conducting a clinical trial testing a new RUTF that uses soy flour in place of milk powder in the recipe, as soy is locally grown in Malawi and is much less expensive. (The link to my blog is somewhere in the side panel, read it if you are interested).
As Westerners, it is hard to envision life without enough food. Seventy percent of Malawians are stunted, most related to lack of proper nutrition during childhood development. My short 5'3" self often can be taller than most of the men and women I meet in the village. Yet, when I walk through the market or drive through the villages, there appears to be plenty of food. Maize is grown on every square inch of cultivatable land, rows of heaped soil can be seen on every mountain growing cassava, peas, potato, tomato, cucumber, pumpkin, carrot, pepper, broccoli, cauliflower, green beans, onions, banana, soy. Rice is sprouting from every marshy area I pass and during the mango season, thousands and thousands of mangos were piled along the side of the roads waiting to be sold for a mere 3 Kwacha per mango (and sometimes less. $1 = MK 140). Papaya, pineapple, avocado and strawberries are all natively grown in Malawi.
Yet, during the rainy season (December - March), most children eat just one meal a day. The staple food here is something called nsima, which remotely resembles something like cream of wheat, farina or polenta but is made with no spices, no salt, no coloring. It is made with maize flour and is extremely nutrient poor. To make nsima, one must simply boil maize flour in water to make a porridge. At the very last moment, you add heaps of uncooked maize flour to make a thick, unstirrable, sticky, white substance. In the end only 40% of the maize is cooked, and it is 70% water overall. Corn as a food provides very little protein and nsima is usually eaten with "relish" - boiled green leafy vegetables with some onion and tomato. At the end of the meal, you are very full of very little nutrients. Occasionally, a bit of protein is served with the meal - usually eggs, beans, goat or chicken. Meat is relatively very expensive for the average Malawian, with one chicken costing anywhere from 300-600 Kwacha (500 MK is about $3.50, the daily salary for a man working in a factory for 9 hours usually is about 160MK, not at our factory though!)
Things get remotely better after the rainy season. People are planting during the rains, and once the water dries up, harvesting begins. There are periods of the year where people even get 3 meals a day, nsima served mainly as lunch and dinner and something called phala served at breakfast. Phala can be made with any number of cereals, but often they use rice that is not cooked until all the water boils off, so there is a sort of rice pudding like texture. Those who can afford to do so will add powdered milk and sugar to the phala in the morning as sort of the Malawian version of hot cereal.
For the visiting expatriate, food in Malawi is rather lovely. I don't eat nsima very often, but with what seems to me as very little money, I am able to have almost any fruit or vegetable I want (and even ones I've never seen or heard of before), eggs, beans, fresh herbs, ginger, garlic, you name it. South Africa sends up the rest - Kellogg's Corn Flakes, All-Bran, Dannon yogurt. I have sort of become a vegetarian, but not by choice. Something about seeing anorexic looking cows walk along the dirt road, knowing that they too need RUTF therapy, makes beef carpaccio or filet mignon a bit less appetizing.
And - Caveat emptor, Let the buyer beware... wash your fruits and vegetables carefully. Gastroenteritis is no fun.
-Danielle Matilsky
