Seafood Ramen Recipe (Pemba Version)

Here is a recipe for ramen that I came up with after 11 months of not having real ramen in my stomach

Ingredients:

0.5 Kg of Noodles (tambe)

2 litres of clean water

1/8 Kg of seafood, I used whole prawns and some small squids. You can use any kind of seafood

1 whole onion, peeled

3 cloves of American sized garlic

Half a root of ginger

Salt

Peppercorn, whole or ground

1 Tbs Sesame oil

4 Tbs Soy sauce

Optional – 1 Tbs of Fish Sauce, and some loving

Topping – Curry Shrimp Cake

A handful of peeled shrimp

1 clove of American sized garlic, diced or chopped

Black Pepper

Salt

1 Tbs Fish Sauce

1 Tbs Sesame Oil

1 Tbs Curry powder, or 2 Tbs for a little kick

Instructions:

Broth and Noodle

1. Drop the seafood into a pot, fill the pot with water, then bring to a boil.
2. While the mixture is boiling, add the cloves of garlic, onion and the ginger (no need to peel, just wash the ginger).
3. As the pot come to a boil, reduce the heat to a simmer
4. Simmer for 1.5-2 hours.
5. About 1 hour into the simmering process, add the Shrimp cake and the fish sauce
6. About 1 hour 45 minutes, add the shrimp cake, soy sauce and sesame oil. Further reduce the heat
7. During this time, boil another pot of water to cook the noodle. You can cook the noodle however you want. Depending on if you want a harder texture noodle or a softer texture, you would cook the noodle at difference time length.
8. When the noodle is ready and to your liking, serve with the broth.

Curry Shrimp Cake

1. Put all the ingredients in a food processor or a blender. If you do not have either of these items, you can use the old mortar and pestle to make it all together.
2. When adding the shrimp cake into the broth, scope a tablespoonful each time.

I would like to thank Andy and Khuyen for sending me the bottle of Meiwei Brand Sesame Oil and some baby dried squids. And especially Khuyen for reminding me that I really miss ramen.

A Reunion with my Bicycle

I have missed the weekly update from last week, for the simple reason that I was too lazy to write. In concurrent to my laziness, I felt like I didn't have enough material to write what I thought would be a worthy update. So here is my 2 weeks worth of updates on what I have been doing at my site and on the island of Pemba.

Last week

First of all, my students have won yet another singing competition last weekend. This time it was at Miti Ulaya (the European Trees???) Primary school in Wete. So now, this is the part that everyone has been waiting for, traveling tips on traveling around Pemba. I mean after all you are reading a blog with the name The Hitchhiker's Guide to Pemba. What sort of hitchhiker's guide would this be if there isn't going to be any traveling tips.

To get to Wete from any where on the island is actually very straight forward. From what I have observed, in every major town on Pemba, there is at least one dala dala (a pick-up truck that the local have converted into a mass public transportation, or an overly cramped Toyota Hi Ace van.) Here is one tip, always and always opt to sit in the front cab, no matter the tempting invitations by the locals in the back of the cab to chat with you or anything. More than likely, when you are sitting in the back of the cab in a dala dala, you will experience something many foreigners have called the Tanzanian Squeeze. You will experience something similar to the canning process of the cannery industry. You will most likely be sat on, poked by random appendages, or simply be squeezed into a new waist size that you have not have since you were a wee lad/lass. In the front cab, there is a legal limit of only 3 person including the driver, so it is pretty spacious comparatively to the back. So here is the take-away from all of that, to get to Wete, simply try to sit in the front cab of any dala dala that has the sign in the front saying Wete - ??? or ??? - Wete.

Back to singing competition. According to what I have heard from the other teachers and students, the next competition will be in Michiweni, Pemba. Afterward, if my students are to win the next competition, they will be going to Mkoani, Pemba, then finally to Unguja (the main island of Zanzibar) for an all Zanzibari competition. The singing competition comprises of how well the students can perform the song, how well they have their formations (similar to marching band), and how meaningful and on-topic the topics they are singing about. Hopefully my students will get at least to the all Zanzibari competition, for it would definitely boost their confidence level tremendously.

Now onto some matters that I have observed since being on the island.

There is actually a cottage industry of food delivery services. Now we all know that the States have pizza delivery, Chinese/Thai food delivery, sandwiches delivery. In Asia, there are all sort of delivery services, from McDonald's, KFC, noodles delivery in Việt Nam (Mì gỏ). Well in my village on Pemba, there is a fresh corn delivery service. I was just eating dinner with my lovely neighbors, and all of the sudden, I heard a familiar “Hodi hodi hodi.” In came a kid that I recognized from around my village. At first I did not pay much notice to the backpack that he was wearing, until he took it off to unload his goods. There were at least 10 cobs of corn in the small backpack, don't ask me how they all fit in there. I immediately asked my neighbor what the kid was doing with all those cobs of corn. My neighbor then just casually say that she had ordered the corn a few minutes ago. So yea, I can boast that my village has a pretty speedy (even by American standard) door to door corn delivery service. I think I have also heard of another delivery service involving fresh milk, which I need to investigate into more.

Tanzanians, from my observation these past few months, are a generally amiable people. I have not seen any Tanzanian staying mad for more than 15 minutes. There isn't really a concept of holding grudges. If there are grudges, then the Tanzanians must be quite gifted in the art of acting. An example of I can think of right off the bat is that of my neighbor's kids. One day the older sister was chastising and disciplining her younger siblings quite harsh. But then no more than 15 minutes later, the whole group of siblings were back to cracking jokes, laughing and dancing with each other like nothing has happened. I remembered when I used to get chastised by my parents, I would stay mad and not talk to my parents for at least a day. Now I am not sure if this is due to their amiable nature or being so desensitized to corporal punishment that they do not remember any sort of chastising or lessons. I have no idea what the point of me telling that story, but I am pretty sure it has something to do with my amazement by the stark difference between Tanzanians and Americans

Well well well, now that you have read almost 900 words of this update, I have a special present for you. I have concocted a recipe to make a seafood based ramen with ingredients that one can find on the Green Island. Here is the link to the Ramen Recipe.

Finally, we get to this week

The highlight of this week was a visit by some PCVs from the mainland. Usually PCVs would come to Pemba for one reason and one reason only, to go SCUBA diving. From what I have heard, Pemba is probably one of the cheapest place that a PCV can get certified for SCUBA diving with NAUI. Seeing as how I have not seen many other PCVs for a really long 2 months, I decided that I would meet up with them for the weekend at Swahili Divers in Makangale, at the northern tip of the island. 2 of the visitors came to Pemba on Friday, so immediately after lecturing my students, I bust a move and biked my way to Konde, at 5:30 PM. Now you see, riding a bicycle in dusk was not one of my brightest idea. O yea, the reason why I attempted to ride my bicycle to Konde was because dala dala are extremely rare on Pemba after 4:30 PM. Knowing that it would be hard to catch a dala dala, I decided to attempt to ride a 26 miles ride to Konde. Luckily for me, I was able to hail a dala dala heading for Wete. Since Wete is not on the way to Konde, I had to jump off the dala dala at a junction called Madanjani (the cost was 500 TSH), and continue on my bicycle. After riding my bicycle for a while, I was able to hail a dala dala heading from Shengejuu Secondary to Konde (1000 TSH). Once in Konde, I was able to meet up with the 2 visiting volunteers and another PCV residing on the island. That night, we enjoyed a typical Kondite/Kondean meal, comprising of urojo (Zanzibar soup mix), mishikaki (meat skewer), and a glass of freshly pressed sugarcane juice. The next morning, Saturday, we departed for Swahili Divers. Normally I would have ridden my bicycle through the Ngezi Forest for a nice weekend ride, but seeing as how we had 2 visitors that did not have access to their own bicycles, we opted to take the dala dala to Makangale (1500 TSH). The ride was a long and bumpy ride through the nice forest. Another traveling tip, when you are traveling from Konde to Makangale, opt to take a bigger dala dala, do not by any way take the small kei car pick-up dala dala. The small kei car truck was not meant to travel through rough terrain being heavily loaded with people and other junks with it.

All in all, this weekend was a nice weekend at Swahili Divers. I was able to hang out with some PCVs after a long and stressful week.

A very small note, if you do not want to walk or ride your way back to Chake Chake, Wete, or Mkoani or any place from Konde. Be prepare to leave Swahili Divers before 3 PM if you are traveling by bicycle. The dala dala leaving Konde usually stop running around 3:30 – 4:00ish PM.

So until next time.  Next week, I'll be traveling to Michiweni District.

I think I found a new profession

Life on the Green Island is never boring, especially not with a batch of homemade fruit wine to warm my stomach every once in a while.  But overall, this week has been a struggle and a half along with some incredible moments.

Let's start with the beginning of this week.  The first thing that greeted me as I walked into the teachers' lounge was a stack of papers.  Now normally a stack of papers on my desk is a normal thing, but not this stack . . . This stack was the stack of forms and papers that I have been advising my school to acquire in order to apply for a grant to help complete our new school buildings.  Everything would be all and dandy and easy and I would have been able to turn in all the forms right away, but then again TITZ (This is Tanzania/Zanzibar).  Of course all the forms and papers were in Kiswahili, I mean school officials and local governments usually do all their work in English right?  Since the grant that we are applying for requires that all the paperwork are in English, so it fell upon me to translate everything into English.  Luckily I was able to recruit the help of another teacher to help with the translating process.  All in all, it took just a little bit more than a week to finish everything.

Immediately after I have finished teaching all of my classes for the day, I went on a hunt.  It was a glorious hunting session, where my prize was not the elusive Kanga of Kangagani (which I saw for the 2nd time today).  Last weekend, I was told by a fellow volunteer on the island that most if not all the primary schools on the island received a projector and 2 laptops for educational usage.  I was thrilled when I heard of this news.  I knew I had to get access to this fabled projector.  As I asked around the school, I felt like a tracker, gathering all the necessary information about my prey until the very last moment before I pounce.  In the end, I was able to track down the headmistress of the adjoined primary school.  She was willing to let me use the projector, indefinitely, as long as I would let the other teachers use it when they need it.  In other word, I have a projector and some speakers to show my students some Magic School Bus of Bill Nye, and the occasion movie nights (kila siku) (now all I need is a popcorn machine, would any one like to donate to the Help Son Establish a Movie Theater Fund?)

As I made my way home after a long day of teaching and tutoring, I was greeted with another pleasant surprise.  One of the rope beds that I have ordered was finished, and I couldn't wait to start the stringing process.  With the help of my handy neighbor, I was able to finish the bed in 2 days.  The stringing process was quite arduous, but I managed, well more like my neighbor managed.  I can say that the bed that we made is quite comfortable, but then again, I like to sleep on a firm mattress.  Next week, the other bed should be finished and I will be able to house up to 3 people at a time in my house. Hint hint

A very tightly strung bed

The rest of the weeks went by smoothly.  Like usual, I was teaching for the majority of the day, 7AM – 1PM, then 3PM – 6PM, then 7:30PM – 8:30/9PM.  Luckily I was able to schedule my teaching schedule so that I do not have to teach on Friday, or else I would soon be feasting with the Drowned God.  This week, my students have been trying to teach me some tongue twister in Kiswahili.  And it is safe to say that I will not be memorizing any of them soon enough. The same can be said about the bombardment of Arabic that my students think are lessons for me.

“Barabara ya Pemba si barabara ni bora barabara ya bara na barabara”
“Moka piki paktilali titimuka pati pati lili titimuka ua”
“Mbirimbi mbili mbivu mbovu mbaya”

On to the weekend -

Saturday

I have never realized how long a day can be when I am not constantly napping or doing nothing.  Fresh off the morning, I was woken up with a cacophony of tapping outside my bedroom window.  Luckily I was sleeping far away from the window because I was test running my new awesomely strung rope bed that is tighter than the sharpest of hairpins.  It was only the handyman that was suppose to come today to help with my most ambitious project yet, an extension to the counter-top in my kitchen.  I can say that I actually help with this project, that is until one of my Form II students decided to show up as the delivery boy from the village supply store.  He decided to stay and help out with the project.  I mean, who am I to deny him of the opportunity to shovel and mixing cement for no pay at all.  I was content with the slow shoveling and mixing, but he just came in and took my job.  The work day ended quite early, per TZ custom, after just 3 hours of work, with a 30 minutes break for chai (tea).  Although we finished early, it was because we have done all that we can do for the day.  The next part was to way for the cement to dry.

There are not that many sight in the world that can instantly cheers you up

The begining

Prepping

Before Chai break

Well that's the result of the first day

After the construction project, I was left with half a day of nothing on hand.  I had expected today to be a really long day, ending possibly at 4PM, but we were finished about 11AM.  With so much time on my hand, I decided I was going to do what I do best, to be a kid.  The neighborhood kids are always playing around my house, for some odd reason that has nothing to do with me being an mzungu (foreigner) at all.  Today they were braiding each others' hair, so I decided to join them.  It took some negotiation skill on my part to convince them to try to braid my hair (seeing as how in Tanzania, Pemba at least, it is not customary for males to have braided or tied up).  But before they got to braid my hair, I was distracted with another curiosity.  I saw my neighbor was preparing to chop some woods for her kitchen.  Being bored, I decided to give it a try to help her out.  What became was a spectacle for my neighborhood.  I have to give it up to people who have to chop woods for a living, it is pretty hard work.  I was utterly tired by the 3rd or 4th stroke of the ax, but being hard headed and prideful, I did not stop until the large branch was reduced to nothing but mere tinder and kindling.  After a session of utter carnage, I was back to my hair braiding session.  I did not expect much, but once one kid started to braid my hair, the whole neighborhood of kids joined in. What became of my hair was an amalgamation of a raven's nest and a litter of autumn leaves before the long incoming winter.  Needless to say, I dare not ask them to braid my hair again.  I did try to teach them how to dance, but they prove to be too much for even Hassan the Dancing Fiend.

Who's ready to dance?

My KND's

Sunday

Once again, I was woken with the ruckus tapping on my window.  Today the work was even less.  I think it only took us 1 hour to finish and to clean up from the mess that was left behind from yesterday.  For some reason I decided to be adventurous and break my fast on a savory oatmeal mixed with egg, I will not try to do that again.  Oatmeal was meant to be eaten with sugar, Milo, milk, and occasionally cinnamon, not fish sauce, egg, and furikake.  Once again, I was left with a whole free day of doing what I am so good at, being a kid again.  Today I decided to take up goat herding.  Those goats were very strong, I don't know how a kid was able to take care of 3 or 4 goats.  It was already a handful with just 2 goats.  In the evening after I have finished playing with goats and the Kids Next Door, I managed to convince my neighbor to put his freezer in my house, and I'll pay for the electricity.   Needless to say, he was more than eager to do it.  So now without having to pay for a freezer, I have gained a freezer for use in my newly renovated kitchen.

The result of 2 days of laborious work

My kitchen is almost complete

In other news, this highlight meals of the week were cá kho and cá ướp muối chiên.  Also after a night of chatting with my neighbor outside in my front porch lit with my new super bright light bulb, I discovered that I have a bush of húng quế (basil).  So now I can cook even more Vietnamese food.

That is all for this week Hitchhiker's Guide to Pemba.  Stay tune for next week episode when I'm actually traveling around Pemba.

Peace Outside,
The Amateur Goat Herder / Axeman

Almost the best weekend ever, but not quite there by a really long shot

YO

So I am trying to make it a habit of updating this blog every Sunday (East Africa Time). We'll see how long I will actually be actively working on this blog.

Lately, it has been pouring cats and kittens, 24/7 with some days having endless rain.  I did not know so much water can be stored in the atmosphere all at once in one location, perhaps since I am so used to living in one of the driest places on earth.  In all of the 24 years that I have been alive, I have never been exposed to as much rain as these past few weeks.  Some days I could not even leave my house because the rain was pouring heavily, literally a torrential downpour.  But all of this rain is also a blessing, my garden to flourish tremendously.  My papaya trees are almost as tall as me now (not that great of a feat) and one of them is even flowering.  Papaya coming soon to a table near me.

For some reason, even with the rainy season, the daily catches have gotten better.  In the market this week, I was able to find a fine specimen of Istiophorus platypterus (Sailfish).  I would have estimated it to be about 2.5 meters SL.  It made for a scrumptious curry sauteed lunch.  Gymnothorax favagineus (Laced moray eel) makes a good deep fried dish after an afternoon of marinating with salt, pepper, and lemongrass.  On Friday and today, I was able to procure a decent amount of Fenneropenaeus indicus (Indian white prawn).  I don't think I am able to show you the excitement that I have been experiencing this whole weekend on this blog.  For a while, I have been craving some Canh Chua and Bún Riêu, 2 of my most favorite Vietnamese dishes.  To make these dishes, one would need to use some sort of crustacean as a base for the stock.  Seeing as how crabs, prawns and lobsters are no where to be found these past few months, I was left with no choice but to suffer the craving, but no more am I afflicted with such wantings.  This weekend I have successfully crossed these 2 dishes off my list of cravings.

Here are some pictures of the homemade Bún Riêu I was able to make by scavenging together all the essential ingredients in my village.

I just threw in some ukwaju (tamarind), bilimbi (Averrhoa bilimbi a fruit similar to starfruit), some matungule (tomato), chumvi (salt), pili pili manga (black pepper), kitunguu saumu (garlic), fish sauce, some for the F. indicus, and some loving (MSG) for the stock.  For the riêu (crab/prawn cake), I used a lot of prawns, some pili pili manga, kitunguu saumu, 2 mayai (eggs) (although I should have used 3 or 4 instead, to give it a more appealing coloration), fish sauce, chumvi, and some loving, all in a blender.  For the bún, I would like to thank my friends Andy and Khuyen for supplying me with some sweet and tender rice noodles.  Overall, it made for a great Sunday brunch.  Next up on my list of cravings is ramen albeit without the pork . . .

Today, having too much time on my hand, I was able to transfer one of my batches of wine into another bucket to age.  This batch has been fermenting for a while now, I hope that it has not gone bad.

O yea here are some pictures of my little cheetah

Until next time.
Peace

Master of the Choir and Games

So much for keeping up with my blog.  It has been a decade and forever since I have written or given a thought about this blog.  Well okay, more like a while and a half.  I guess I have been keeping myself pretty occupied these past few months, juggling between teaching, friends, amongst other random things.  Well let's start with the most recent event that I attended.

Today, Duma, my cat, met his mother for the first time in 5 months.  He was also able to meet his younger siblings.  I found out that cats are very territorial, Duma was hissing intensely at his mother and siblings.  His siblings are the cutest thing ever, they were so tiny that they looked more rodent-like than feline.  From my estimate, they could be no more than 2 or 3 weeks.  If only I had more space-time, I would have adopted another kitten (I really need to invent a machine that can bend the very fabric of space-time, so I can have more time and space.)  

This weekend has be quite a trip literally, with the slight renovation of my house and a choir competition.  On Saturday, I took a group of girls from my school to visit another school in the area to compete in a singing competition.  I did not expect much before arriving to this competition.  In my mind this was just going to be a small get together between my school and the other school, but boy was I wrong.  This was a full blown competition of the arts, with many participating school.  There were plays being enacted (which my school did not participate, I found this to be quite interesting.), poems recited, and songs sung.  Each competition was divided into 2 groups, the Primary school and the Secondary school.  Even with the drizzling rain that have been plaguing our island, there were still plenty of folks that came out to participate in the festivity.  All in all, I would have to say that I was quite impressed with the level of skills that these students exhibited.  I do not think that I have as much as 1/1,000,000th of the skills that they possess.  

Here is a 10 minutes clip of the performance that my girls performed splendidly

(I am actually the teacher that is in charge of the choir and games).  My girls won the competition this time around, and we were invited to another competition in June.  In related news, my boys have also won their football (soccer) match against another school some weeks ago, but they will not be attending in the next round of the competition.  They played valiantly even when the field was muddy and slippery from the torrential rain.  Like I say, I only train winners.

Before leaving for the competition, I was starting the process of renovating my house.  I started with knocking down the rotting ceiling sections in my kitchen with the help of my neighbor and the friendly neighborhood all around handyman.  Midway through the job, I had to leave them to finish the renovating of my roof, which was leaking and falling apart due to the plaguing rain that has been tearing the island apart.  Next week I have plans to extend the cement counter in my kitchen.  My kitchen supplies and utensil has grown dramatically since I first arrived here, and the short counter that I have proved to be somewhat lacking.  With the extension in mind, I decided to go into town to go on what turned out to be a shopping spree of kitchen supplies and utensil . . .  All in all, this weekend has proved to be surprisingly interesting, and it got even more awesome when my neighbor surprised me with some prawn soup for dinner.  I think I have the best neighbor ever.

O yea, recently I have found out that one of the villagers is trying to breed peafowls (bata mzinga in Kiswahili) in my village.  Hopefully by next Thanksgiving, there will be enough of them that he is willing to let one go (they do look like turkey).  I also would not mind trying some peafowl egg.

I have also been reading a lot.  For all of you who know me, I do not read a lot of fictional book for recreational purposes.  Since I have received a Nook in a care package, I have been reading everyday, and wow I just realized I have missed out on so many interesting books since I stopped reading for fun.  On a related note, A Feast for Crows is such a tedious book even though it is the shortest of all the A Song of Ice and Fire book.  If you have any recommendations for great books to read, please let me know.

And all of the sudden, I have forgotten all that I have done these past few months.  I seriously need to keep this blog updated more often, so as not to forget anymore details.

And thank you to everyone who have sent me care packages these past few months.  I few so loved and cared for.  You all have made my service much more memorable.  Thank you mom, dad, Diana and all of GDPT Ky Vien, Joey, Dan, Khuyen and Andy.  You are all super awesome.

Time for some updates

Time is a wonderful and mysterious concept.  It never actually stands still, yet many people including me, often take it for granted.  Thinking that time would stand still and wait for me when I am on Pemba, I wasted a lot of it.  I was one inch punched in the face with the sudden realization that today marks the 5th month that I have been in Tanzania.  Looking back, I see that I have changed drastically.  I've become a more content version of my previous self.  I can actually take care of myself after 23 years of existence. I also like to think that I have become a better cook (more to come later in the post).  Overall, I think that I have become a better version of myself from 5 months ago.  I now know more of what I want out of life, seeing a clearer path of life that I want to take, although this is still quite hazy.  But time really has fly by me these 5 months, only realizing this after I have been talking to some friends from back home these past few weeks.  So hopefully for the next 19 months or so, I hope that I will not be wasting and watching the time fly by as much as before.

Well here are some updates:

23-11-2013 -

This Saturday started out as normal as any Saturday can be in Tanzania.  I woke up in a sweltering hot room, lacking any mean of ventilation, door shut due to a possibility of the invasion of the rodents, lying in a pool of my own sweat.  The first thought that came to my mind was, "Did I forget to turn on the fan last night? No that's impossible because the fan is always on in my room."  It took me a while to realized that there was no electricity in my house, along with the other houses in my village.  This was both a blessing and a curse.  A curse because I was not able to play any tune on my computer, which I forgot to charge the night before.  A blessing because this actually forced me outside into the community.  Without any electricity, I was not able to cook my own breakfast, so naturally I went over to my neighbor to try and score some breakfast, since they always asked me to join them for breakfast lunch and dinner.  I was not disappointed, as I came inside their house, I was greeted with a fragrant scent of fresh baked breakfast rolls and chapati ya maji.  The meal was a typical Tanzanian breakfast with rolls, chapati, and of course the ubiquitous sweet Tanzanian chai (tea).  After breakfast, I hung out with some of my neighbors and other random villager under a tree.  This was when the day started going south.  For some reason they thought it was appropriate or funny to ask me to read random Chinese scripts that they found on various packagings.  At first I thought OK they just don't know that I do not know Chinese.  Even after I explain that I do not know Chinese or Korean or Japanese, they continued to have a discussion on the various East Asian languages. Then some of the people there had the audacity to started saying the whole Chingchong thing.  And the Tanzanian version of Chingchong is even more annoying and disgusting to the ear than the American version.  It is not even Chingchong, it is just random mumbling and murmuring at attempting to sound "Chinese".  I immediately gave them the "WTF", and no they did not stop.  I then gave them the "Ain't nobody got time for this" face (according to a fellow Peace Corps volunteer). They still did not stop, feeling disgusted and angry, I made it known the group and left abruptly.  At home, I just needed a way to chill out and cool down, but with the sweltering heat and the lack of any electricity to power my fan, I was left with only one option.  And that was to head toward the beach and go for a quick swim.  I packed my bag and climbed on my trusty bicycle, and started riding toward the outskirt of town.  Now this was the first time I attempted to go to the beach all by myself so it took me almost 2 hours to find the correct way to go to the beach, seeing as how I got lost numerous time.  But all was well when I finally reached my destination.

Time for a little rest

The view after an arduous bone jarring journey

The high tide covered much of the intertidal zone

As I arrived at the beach, all the local fisherman had left due to the incoming high tide, which was perfect for me.  I was able to swim and enjoying the beach all by myself.  You could say that this has become my own private beach.  This was what I needed after a much heated day, pun intended.  After I cooled down significantly, I started to head back to my village, which only took 20 minutes of slowly riding down the bone jarring road.  It can be safe to say that I will visit this beach more often in the future.

A private beach all by myself

With no one but the my shadow

25-11-2013

I have a special something for everyone today.  Yesterday, I was giving the opportunity to purchase 3 spiny lobster for a mere TSH 8000, or about $5.  Yes that is $5 for about 2-3lbs of spiny lobster freshly caught in the back yard that is my neighborhood.  The Asian slickdealer in me immediately jumped on that deal, because you know as they say "Buy now think later."  And that was exactly how this whole deal was.  I did not know how to cook lobster, I had a slight idea of what I wanted to do, so immediately I contacted my mother in the States.  This was how the conversation went "Má, cách nào nấu lẩu tôm hùm?" Within minutes, my dear mother replied a whole quick recipe on how to make Lobster Hot Pot. "Con làm tôm cho sạch để ráo sau đó ướp gia vị để cho thấm khoảng 1 tiếng .Bắt nồi bỏ dàu ăn cho nóng đập tỏi phi cho thơm bỏ tôm vào xào cho thấm sau đó cho nước xôi vào nấu nêm bột chua nêm nếm vừa ăn là được."  Well that all sounds pretty easy but I did not have some of the ingredients she mentioned so I decided to make my own recipe based on her.

Ingredients (easily found on Pemba):
2-3 lbs of Spiny Lobster
1 bag of clam
TSH 2000 worth of meaty white fish (don't buy the Scombridae available in the market, the dark meat does not go well with this hot pot, but you can if you want)
1/2 lb of octopus
2 skewers of snails
Salt
Pepper
Cooking oil
Garlic
Onion
Tamarind
3-4 bundles of Lemongrass
Carrots
Chili Pepper
Lemon juice
About 2 Liters of Water (Boiling)

So the previous day I had prepare and marinaded the octopus.  I simple put in a couple pinch of salt, pepper, about half a lemon worth of lemon juice, 2 cloves of mashed garlic, and some cooking oil in a small bowl.  I then add the octopus (beaten and cut into small bite size pieces).  Put this in the fridge or freezer, whichever you have available.

The octopus after a 24 hours marinating period

Next up I prep the clam and the snails by giving them a thorough cleaning in a small bowl.  Then I immersed them in boiling water and let them soak until I am ready to cook them.

Soaking the snails and clams

For the fish, I sliced them thinly similar to how one would slice sashimi.  This would allow the fish to cook quicker for some hotpot dipping action.

Fish sliced into dip-able size

Now to prepare the tamarind stock.  This extra important because it gives the hotpot a nice little sour kick.  Now on Pemba, they would sell tamarind by the kilogram.  So I bought about 1/4 kg and this was way more than I needed, but hey it was pretty cheap.  I filled a cup with boiling water then I dropped in a sizable amount of tamarind, I imagined how the soup would taste with the amount of tamarind being put in.  So I just guestimated by ear.  Then I started stirring the living pulp out of the very tamarind seed, to get all the flavor into the water. I did this for about 5 minutes, every now and then I would put in more and more of the tamarind, until it was a dark enough color that I thought was sufficient for the soup.  Then leave this on the side.

Start mincing the onion and garlic.  I used a whole bulb of onion and 4 cloves of garlic.  You can also dice the carrot at this time, into whatever shape you prefer.

Now I started heating some cooking oil in a pot that will be used for the hot pot. You can use however much oil you want, as this is mainly to extract the flavors out of the garlic and onion for your stock. I used about 3-4 tablespoons of cooking oil.

While the oil is getting heat up, I started preparing the lobster first give them a thorough scrubbing, who know what kind of gunk they have sticking to them.  Then you continue by cutting the head off.  I sliced the head in halves just so that during the cooking process, all that juicy goodness will flow out easier into the stock. I also halved one of the tails to be used in the stock.  The other 2 tails I left alone to be grilled for later usage.  You can give the head and the tail some flavoring of your choice, but I opted out of this because I thought there was already enough flavoring going into the soup.

Defrosting my lobsters

Now onto the fun part.  The oil should be adequately heated up by now.  Drop in those garlic bad boys that you have minced earlier.  Make sure to keep the heat low so that you won't burn the crisp off these bad boys.  When the garlics are starting to turn golden, it is time to drop the bass on those onion, constantly stirring or turning them around.  Wait until the onions are about translucent, drop the lobster pieces in and give them a quick stir fry.  By now turn the heat up a bit.  You can now put in some salt and pepper if you did not flavor the lobsters beforehand.  When the lobster pieces are turning red, add the 2 litters of boiling water.

Remember the tamarind juice that we prepared earlier?  Now you can easily scoop the the seeds and discard of them. What are you waiting for, drop these bad boys into the stock pot.

You can now start tearing or mashing the lemongrass so that you can easily extract the flavor.  After mashing the lemongrass, you can add them to the stock pot.  Of course you can add the carrot at this time also, to give the soup some more sweet sweet flavoring goodness.

By this time, you are probably forgot all about the clams, snails and octopus right?  Well you can start adding those bad boys, don't forget to give the clams and snails one final rinse and drain.

Now it is time for the most important ingredient of all, the chili peppers or the pili pili hoho.  This is up to your discretion. Use however much chili peppers that you think you can handle or enjoy. For me personally, I only used half of a chili pepper.  Mash the pepper with a spoon and add these smashed chili pepper pieces to the stock.  Let everything simmer for about 30 minutes.  After 30 minutes, now is the time to add salt to flavor to taste.

10 minutes before serving, add the fish fillet that we prepared earlier.

There you go, a full blown recipe for a Seafood Lobster Hot Pot, made with ingredients easily found on the Green Island of Pemba. Enjoy.

Seafood galore

I thought that this hot pot was a hit with many people in my neighborhood.  Also, I like to think that I have successfully introduced lemongrass to the cuisine of Pemba.  Hopefully

30-11-2013 to 3-12-2013

I've been writing post cards to my friends around the world, about 30-40 cards total.  So if my cards somehow make it into your hands, please let me know, and it'll be cool if you can write back.  I'm looking forward to some responses :)

An example of a Pemban postcard

Well Peace Out
- The Village Cook

Diving into Knowledge

As I am sitting in my living room, pondering how to write next week final exams for my form I and form III students, my mind began to wander. Wandering around the brilliant island of Pemba. I have not been back to my house for over 72 hours and yet my mind is already wandering off to some other place, looking for the next thing Perhaps it is due to my living arrangement, aka the forever alone life, or perhaps it can be contributed to my soul being a legless bird who has trouble finding the right perch. My village has much to offer me, ranging from flying foxes to bush babies or even honeybees carefully nesting on a secluded mango tree in my back yard. Exciting as my village can be, there is just more to Tanzania, specifically Pemba, that I have yet to explore. Let's recap what has happened since the last episode of The Hitchhiker's Guide to Pemba:

After returning from a week long holiday, my school was opened for exactly 3 whole days, not one not two but three whole days. During those three days, I tried my best review what was forgotten during the long break. But really what kind of student would listen to his or her teacher for 2 periods that are smacked between two really long school breaks? The result of my futile attempt was disastrous at best. The best part of the 3 short days of school was my introduction of Halloween to my Form I students. I had to act out being a zombie/ghost/ghoul for the students to understand Although none of the student caught on with the whole Trick-or-treating thing, although there were plenty of snacks at my house, o well.

For the majority of the week following Halloween I was cooped up in my house. I finally had time to do some serious cleaning and exploring the labyrinth that is my house. This can mostly be contributed to the fact that I had some important visitors from the Peace Corps. They swung by just to check out if I was alive or not, needless to say they were satisfied that they did not have an injured or dead Peace Corps Volunteer on hand. Of course they were really surprised with the condition of my humble but spacious abode, clean but not too clean that it looked like I intentionally cleaned my house for their arrival.

For the weekend, I visited a resort with the fellow islanders. It was just what I needed after being cooped up in my house for so long. After over a year of inactivity, I decided to go SCUBA diving again. Boy was it a blast. I have no idea why I stopped doing that, but I do know that I am hooked again. I can foresee a future on this island that involves me diving a lot, or at least being in the water more often. At the resort, I had a lot of time to think, yet for the most part, I just let my brain wander freely, not caring for the mundane troubles of the world. It was a blissful experience in a place distance from the distractions of the world, separated by both a physical and a metamorphic forest of serenity. Just what I needed.

Minutes before the sunset on a walk down the beach

Such serenity cannot be captured with a mere camera phone

Sitting under such majesty can make one question many things.

But in the end, the mind just drift off to nowhere.

I can just lounge here all day long.

Now I am back to the world of examinations and deadlines. But somehow I feel very contend to be back home, to my humble spacious abode. :) Here is my bicycle that I bought from a used bicycle store on Unguja, fitted with a basket, fenders, and even lights. The ultimate in utilitarian gadget, although it is missing a rear rack.

Have a good day

Until next time,
Just Son