HOME LIFE
Large families make for large family relations. The term family here is taken to include uncles, aunts, cousins, in-laws, grandparents, etc and the end of a family is difficult to clarify. It is almost as if one family just melts into the next. No matter which of these family members find themselves under one roof, life is not convenient. There is one head of the household. Contrary to lack of women rights, there are some regions of the country that are more maternalistic in which the groom joins the family of the bride upon marriage. In these areas women will also run the house, while men will be at work in the market. All of the inhabitants of the house then follow the orders of the head. Children here are not encouraged to ask questions, but are rather told what and what not to do (a norm that has incredibly deep ripples in a formal classroom setting or less formal field training). There are endless daily chores including carrying water in 25 liter jugs (each weighing over 50lbs full) from the nearest well or river which is sometimes over an hour away. Custom here is that you bath first thing in the morning and last thing before bed, so that’s even more water to be carried. This may seem like a gross misuse of water, but these are regions without paved roads/paths, sewers, or easy access to medicines. Keeping clean is an important cultural norm and has definite health benefits. Also when taking a bucket bath the quantity of water you use is nothing compared to even the most conservative shower in the States.
Food has to be gathered from the farm since most homes do not have refrigeration (let alone often electricity). Each meal has a main carbohydrate which, in areas without rain sufficient enough to cultivate rice, is in the form of a stiff porridge. This porridge is made from a flour (either corn, cassava, or sorghum) and that flour is hand made, daily. The farm must be attended to daily, which obviously includes a huge spectrum of tasks all of which are done by hand or with a simple hoe. Even for the majority of families that live in rural areas their farms are not outside their back door surrounding the house as is often seen in the States. Family members walk to a suitable piece of land where they grow the family’s food. Small livestock, such a chickens, ducks, guinea fowl, pigs and goats, are kept close to home to care for them and guarantee their safety. The children (and often adults) go to school during the morning or afternoon or evening (3 separate sessions of school per day) and of course you need to factor in the time they spend daily walking to and from school (hours) in sparsely populated rural areas. Others must go out in search of cooking fuel, the most common of which is locally gathered wood. Some also cook over charcoal, but in rural areas charcoal is more of a revenue source, since it makes little sense to gather wood, burn it into charcoal and then use it to cook when you could just use the wood you gathered in the first place. Then of course there is the time it takes to actually cook; no just-add-water mixes, pre-washed and cut lettuce, instant rice, frozen meals, or delivery. During all of this children are cared for (though in a more hands-off way they you would see in the States) and clothes are washed in the river and dried in the sun. The end of the day comes (dusk) and there is little time for leisure; maybe a visit to a neighbor or walk around just to walk around. Many have small AM/FM radios and pick up the one local or national radio station. A family gathered around a radio seated on bamboo mats in the dark is a common site as children doze off before retreating to the dark interiors of windowless houses with bamboos mats laid as beds on the dirt floor. The day will begin again at dawn.
COOKING
Imagine your stove is 3 stones slightly smaller than bowling balls arranged in a triangle and on which a large metal or ceramic pot balances filled with bubbling porridge. You are outside but under a simple gazebo with maybe a few short walls to keep out too much wind. As the cook you are simultaneously monitoring the food, stirring it, and stoking the fire below. Each of the 3 avenues between the stones is filled wood, long pieces that are pushed further into the hearth as they burn down. There are no hot pads or tongs, just your hands which move nimbly and sense little pain after years of this art. A young child, much too young by American standards for carrying out such a task, appears to ask for ‘fire’. You scoop out a few smaller pieces of burning wood in a coconut shell. The little one hurries back home guarding the fire that will make dinner. I wonder who is the one that lit this fire, and how many days ago it was.
Cooking, even for those living in town, is such a time consuming task that working and cooking is not a possibility. Wealthier families have a paid housekeeper or maid who can be assigned to just about any task: cooking, cleaning, shopping, laundry, child care, yard work, etc. Others have a young girl or boy that lives with them and receives room and board in exchange for working in the house. Others have a wife, daughter, or son that just stays home all day and cooks. The time needed to make everything from scratch means that once the breakfast dishes are done, you need to get going on lunch, and then dinner. To save costs, much of the food is grown, so part of cooking might entail going to the field to pick food for dinner.
Even for the wealthier families living in cities and towns, there is little other option. Cooking is not made convenient beyond cans of tomato paste. Convenient and quick cooking can free more family members for paid work, but convenient and quick foods are more expensive so first a family must work and earn the money, but how is that possible if a potential wage-earner must stay in the kitchen all day. Not everyone builds a wood fire in their yard. Many in slightly larger towns cook on heavy and shin-high iron stoves assembled and welded from scrap metal which burn locally produced charcoal. There are also electric stoves (simple 2 burner hotplates) for those that can afford it and when gas tanks are available you’ll find some households cooking on natural gas stoves hooked to a tank. A full range with oven is very rare, and even rarer if all the components work properly.
FOOD
If a trendy diet were to emerge based on Mozambican cuisine, it would be the all-carbs-all-the-time diet. Every meal and snack has them.
Breakfast – In general they are pretty light. Some type of tea (traditional black or fresh lemon grass are most common) is a must with plenty of sugar, if available. A white bread roll, boiled cassava, boiled ear of starchy corn, boiled sweet potatoes, or boiled green bananas accompany a piece of fruit. Eggs are also available either boiled or fried in a lot of oil. Sometimes a bit of very thin jam or margarine as well. And, of course, there are always leftovers which do not hold for long without refrigeration.
Snack – The snack is still an all ages activity here, and mandatory if you have guests over. Its always quite simple and plain usually a seasonally available boiled carbohydrate (cassava, corn, green bananas, sweet potatoes). Sometimes fresh boiled peanuts or fresh sorghum are also options. In rice growing regions they pick some of the rice before its fully dry, pound it until its flat and the shell comes off and then let it dry. It’s the closest thing to Rice Crispies in country, but eaten hand-to-mouth dry. There are also an limited assortment of plain crackers and semi-sweet cookies, if your budget allows.
Lunch & Dinner – These can be very similar in menu, however most people only either eat one or the other daily. There is always a starch and what starch you eat usually reflects your socioeconomic status. The most preferred is rice. Its just got status. Some areas receive enough rain to grow their own, but this is not the norm in the country. And even those that can grow it will sell a large part since it is a desired commodity. The majority of the rice in Mozambique is imported. Sometimes rice will be prepared with seasonings (oil, tomato, onion, and chicken stock) in it, but it depends on your preference. The #2 choice is corn porridge. The porridge here is stiff and almost always eaten with your hand. It could be compared to Italy’s polenta, but even harder and made with white corn. The corn flour is almost always prepared at home, though small flour mills are becoming more common in rural areas for a very affordable price per kilogram. Lastly, there is cassava porridge. Even those that eat it daily do not really care for it, but it is very often the only option. First the cassava root is peeled and dried in the sun for several days. Once dry it holds indefinitely, as opposed to fresh cassava which spoils within a day or two after being dug out of the ground. Dry cassava is like a really hard piece of chalk and taste like it too with a hint of nut. Making it into flour requires pounding it in a waist-high wooden mortar and pestle, then sifting out the fine dust-like flour, and repeating until all bits are pulverized. Next it is cooked in boiling water, like corn flour would be, until it forms a thick sticky porridge. Cassava porridge is much softer than corn, but its also as sticky as paste. The consistency is similar to Play-doh. However, this porridge will fill you up. Some families will make a mix of corn and cassava porridge to make the corn go further.
Almost always accompanying the starch is some sort of simple stew or sauce. Local leaves (collards, pumpkin, bean, okra, cassava, sweet potato or amaranth leaves) are boiled with any combination of garlic, onions, tomato, chicken stock powder, and curry. Sometimes coconut milk or peanut flour will be added to fortify it in nutrition and flavor. Many of these leave stews are delicious, but when ingredients are sparse they are nothing more than leaves in water and salt sauce. Beans also make common appearances due to their ease in storage and are also prepared with garlic, onions, tomato, chicken stock powder, and curry. Sometimes a Brazilian-influenced feijaoda is made by adding in some meat to the cooking beans. In some northern regions a mixture of beans, rice, and coconut is made in one dish.
Stepping up the stews moves into the fish realm. Though Mozambique had thousands of miles of coastline on the Indian Ocean, fishing, poor infrastructure, and lack of refrigeration makes fresh fish transportation almost non-existent. The lucky ones live near the coasts where you can get fresh tiger prawns measuring about 10 inches long and as thick as sausages, whole king mackerels, grouper, tuna, red snapper, marlin, barracuda, clams, squid and more. Inland, the most common fish is of the dried type. It’s a great way to preserve a good protein source but requires an acquired taste. Prepared in a stew, the fish would most likely be cooked with an combination of, again, garlic, onions, tomato, chicken stock powder, and curry. In southern regions, fish will be prepared in a thick peanut curry sauce that is almost Asian and fantastic. Oddly, in most towns in Mozambique you can get one frozen fish, a small mackerel type locally called carapau. What is most baffling about carapau is that it comes into the country frozen on ships from the Atlantic coast of Africa, the other side of the continent.
The next step up is good old fashioned meat, always fresh. Meat is the most expensive option for your wallet. A kilogram of beef with bone runs about $8 (about $3.66/lb), a kilo of goat with bone about $3.90 or $1.75/lb, and a whole live chicken costs $4.80 for about one kilogram including feathers, bones, and guts. In a country where 81% of the population lives on $1 per day, meat is a very pricey option. Other meat options are pork, rabbits, guinea fowl, guinea pig, bush rat, termites, and grasshoppers depending on the season and region. All and any of these would be stewed in, you guessed it, any combination of garlic, onions, tomato, chicken stock powder, and curry. Oh yeah, sometimes potatoes are tossed in there as well.
Restaurants - The stew and starch combo is by far the standard fare and available at most restaurants, which are by far the most expensive eating option. For special occasions, or about anytime at a restaurant, grilled chicken and fries are served. This is equivalent to the US’s hamburger and fries. All Mozambican restaurants offer this. The remainder of the menu can also be quite predictable -- very simple sandwiches (bread + ingredient, no garnish or condiments) of fried egg, butter, cheese, ham, tomato, fried beef or any combination thereof, -- small frozen hambuger patties served “complete” with cheese and a fried egg, -- pan-fried thin beef steaks with a fried egg and fries, and -- simple omelets with fries. That’s all to be expected. At nicer places in the provincial capitals you’ll find wood-oven pizzas, good seafood, better steaks, the occasional goat ribs and pasta dishes.
