I ate coconut today. Whenever I do, I usually get an itch on the roof of my mouth. Like all itches, this one urgently begs to be scratched. Problem is, it is located at the back of the mouth slightly after the furthest point that the tongue can go. Making some noise at about the spot where the nasal and oral cavities come together offers some relief. The louder and more gross the sound, the more effective the remedy.

The coconut aftermath reminds me of some worms that I ate when I recently visited Zimbabwe, a country in Southern Africa. The worms that were at least an inch long were fried crisp and served as an appetizer. The crunchy worms made my palate itch.

Am I really going to eat this?

The main course consisted of sadza and two types of stews; one made from kudu meat and another from ostrich meat. Kudu is a spiral-horned antelope found in the African bush. Of course you know that the ostrich which is the largest living bird, does not fly, runs fast, and has two-toed feet. The stews were delivered to our table on three-legged pots while still boiling.

Sadza, a dense hill shaped cake made from maize flour forms part of any major Zimbabwean meal. In my country Kenya, sadza is called ugali in Kiswahili our national language.

Justin (left) and I about to dive into our sadza.

If you are a meat lover and in Zimbabwe, you most probably will have a braai (barbeque) once in a while. Many meat-selling shops have a barbeque stand where the customers can braai their meat. The communal barbeque stand is used to braai meat from different parts of different types of animals. At the shared braai stand, each customer barbeques his or her piece of meat. It is important to keep an eye on the stand and ensure that your meat does not get mixed up with someone else’s. I remember on one evening we had a braai, the stand was sagging under the weight of fresh water lake fish, various cuts of beef, a goat’s liver, cow’s intestines…and that is just what I could identify.

Thanks to the crowded communal barbeque stand, you might end up eating a beef flavored fish while your neighbor eats fish flavored beef.

A braai in the evening… my friend Douglas is weaving a cow’s intestines so as to conserve space on the stand.

Zimbabwe has an abundance of forests and bushes. As a result, there are many edible wild fruits and berries that can be easily collected for consumption.

Philip my friend having a taste of edible wild berries.

It is quite an adventure to walk into the bushes and have a knowledgeable person like my friend Philip pick edible wild fruits and berries for you to taste. You soon discover that the taste does not always match the look of the fruit. A shiny red berry might turn out to be pretty sour. As a matter of fact, all the poisonous fruits and berries that were pointed out turned out to be the more attractive ones.

Fortunately for you and me, today we can choose to be sweet rather than sour regardless of how we look.