“There are three possible parts to a date, of which at least two must be offered: entertainment, food, and affection. It is customary to begin a series of dates with a great deal of entertainment, a moderate amount of food, and the merest suggestion of affection. As the amount of affection increases, the entertainment can be reduced proportionately.
I love learning. I especially love learning new things about ethnic food. The other day I stood by and watched as Adelina Banda and her assistant, Otiria Ngoma, prepared our first traditional Zambian lunch for 19 people.
We make stock all the time, and we use stock all the time. In soups. In stews. In risotto. In quinoa or couscous.
When a wind delivered the first smell of rain to me about which I wrote in my post, The Throbbing Earth, it also brought to me a voice. A voice so familiar with nature’s cycles and its rhythms, so sure of its pattern language, to me it sounded as old as Africa itself.
Chris and I have started eating differently. Before, we’d have a mid-morning brunch consisting mainly of vegetables and beans, a snack during afternoon tea, and then dinner with a glass or two of wine, at least in my case.
There’s an air of happy expectancy settling in among our fruit trees. Or maybe it’s just an air of happy expectancy around Chris and me. Lemons, pomelos, grapefruit, naartijies, kumquats, oranges, pomegranates, mangoes, guavas and pineapples are all in various stages of growth and maturation.
