Sakafo Malagasy (Malagasy food)

Here is a little taste of the food I eat daily....

So, Malagasy people eat a lot of rice; actually of any culture in the world, they eat the most per capita, even more than in China!! They typically eat 1/2 kg of uncooked rice per person per day!! They eat rice three times a day, everyday. They usually have it with a sidedish called a "loaka" and sometimes a third salad type thing to put on rice called a "lasary". They eat all three meals with their family and get a 2-3 hour lunch break from school to go home and eat lunch. All of their food is made from fresh foods they get at the market everyday. There is even a verb that means "to go to the market". Most peoples daily small talk is about what kind of sidedish they will have with their rice. Will it be beans and pork? Or green beans and beef? Or water cress and peanuts, which is my absolute favorite!!! I rule at making it. The lasarys are either tomato, carrot, or cucumber.. and all are chopped up veggies with a vinegerette dressing. I absolutely love the tomato kind, and actually crave it now... along with rice. Most malagasy say that it is impossible to be full after a meal if rice was not served. So... after starting a charcol-ish fire.. actually its charbone.... wood that is burried and burned underground until the outside creates a charcol-ish looking outside.... and they put it on a brickish small fire burner that sits on the ground. This is always the first part of the cooking process.. except for me who is living the high life wtih a three burner countertop gas stove (no oven). Then the wife or daughther prepares the sidedish by cutting up meat, onions, garlic and cooking in a big metal pot. Then they clean and prepare the vegetables and add them to the cooked meat. While that finishes cooking, the rice needs to be prepared. First you add kapoakas, "cups", of rice to a flat saucer shaped thing made out of straw type material, called a sahafa. Then you shake it so you can pick out the hulls, rocks, and bad rice. Then you wash the rice in water and add it to a pot and cook it for 30 minutes. The rice is in one bowl, the loaka in another and the lasary in a third as they are set out on the table to eat. My host family, and most people I have met here, pray before dinner. After the rice is taken out of the pot, the pot is put back on the burner to burn the rice and water is added and boiled to make a drink called "ranomapango" which is literally burnt rice water. It is the only thing that typical malagasy people drink, EVER!! They don't drink during meals.. which was a hard thing to adjust to.. but they have reason for it because they drink this type of water because they know it is healthy drinking water since its been boiled. In my area of the country, there are tons of vegetables to buy... I LOVE going tot he market to pick out my loaka for the day. Tomatoes are plentiful here.. and cheap and delicious. I also have a lot of carrots, beans, zucchini, cucumbers, peas, green beans, cabbage, lettuce, eggplant, chick peas and many types of water cress. My area of the country is also famous for its fish. The fish here are huge.... and I've seen many a malagasy save the best part of the fish for last: the head. The only part of the fish they don't eat is the bones. They eat the skin, fins, eyes, head.... everythign but the scales and bones. It takes me FOREVER to pick out all of the bones, but the taste of the fish meat, once finally in my mouth is well worth the effort. There are also tons of peanuts here, bananas, mandarine oranges, pineapple, coconuts (out of this world tasty), potatoes, and the one french influence....loaves of bread. Baguettes to be exact. They are always stale... and there is no wheat bread, but I'll take what I can get. The little street food vendors sell a lot of deep fried foods. There are deep fried bananas, deep fried fish, deep fried potatoes and chives, deep fried doughnuts and even deepfried bread. You can also buy candied peanuts and shredded coconut on the street and sugar cane to suck on. You can also buy fresh milk in the market before 8am, which you have to boil before drinking... and small shops sell homemade yogurt, which is to die for. So tasty. The cheese, coming from a wisconsinite, leaves a lot to be desired and is the only thing I miss besides cold milk and cereal. I have been forced to learn how to cook and its been a painful yet fruitful experience. I am slowly learning to be fully independent and can't wait to go back to the states and use my new skills!!!