I get two main questions from people when they hear I spend a lot of time living in Africa. The first is ‘But aren’t you scared?’ Sometimes when asked that I can see the wheels turning in people’s heads, considering all the possible dangers. In some cases they are afraid that I will end up at the wrong end of a native’s spear or more recently that I will end up with Ebola despite me not having seen a single spear in Etosha and being further from the Ebola outbreak than many Europeans. But the second is ‘so, like, what do you eat?’ Images of zebra steaks and local berries must enter their head if their facial expressions are to be trusted. So, in an effort to avoid a rant, I skip the first question and answer the infinitely less risky second question. And I am a foodie, so I prefer the second question.

 

I ate curries, I ate pizza, I ate couscous, I ate soup, I ate salads and I ate vegemite on toast. My eating in Etosha was not a whole lot different to that in Australia, except it took more careful planning. And everything I ate was made by me. No restaurants or no take out. I planned weeks in advance, sometimes months in advance. I even packed my bags so carefully that I made room for milo, vegemite, ramen, miso paste, Japanese curry and of course Tim Tams.

 

Tim Tams

I actually didn’t eat many of these, they were mostly for the locals - the managers and wardens in the park who sit down for “tea time” on a daily basis. An entirely civilized, yet bizarrely colonial, ritual that served to keep me sane by providing a time for socialising. The tea club became quite accustomed to being provided with Tim Tams whenever I arrived - perhaps arriving without them would have put me in the type of danger I am often asked about! I’ve bought more Tim Tams in the last two years than I have my whole life and just the other day they were half price at Coles, so I am now stocked up for next month’s trip!

 

Lists, lists and more lists

I also did a lot of planning for grocery shopping. It’s been said that I planned with the precision of a general forging war. I had an A4 shopping list that was in a constant state of update. I learnt very early on that handwritten lists got out of hand easily, so they became typed. When your list is a page long with two columns it needs to be in order. Otherwise you end up walking in circles. Particularly in unfamiliar grocery stores. I also liked to have a list of planned meals so that when ingredients weren’t available I knew what I could substitute. For instance, a friend just reminded me of the time I made a ricotta cheesecake…without ricotta. I had decided I wanted to make this particular cake for my birthday and apparently nothing was going to stop me. Even a complete lack of ricotta in Namibia. So, I decided to do a little substituting and managed to turn cream cheese and cottage cheese (both slightly different to their Australian counterparts) into a very ricotta like amalgamation. The non-Ricotta Ricotta Cheesecake was a hit with the tea club.  But usually, it was a matter of substituting yoghurt for buttermilk, one vegetable for another, or one meat for another (if it wasn’t a whole frozen chicken or beef mince it could be tricky to find). A lot of people didn’t go to this much effort. Ok, so no one else went to this much effort, but I don’t like repetitive dinners, I avoid eating tinned food were possible, and also shop at much longer intervals than most. And whilst I could easily survive a more restrictive situation, I figure I didn’t have to so why should I. And when I saw people mixing macaroni, tinned meat, frozen veg and curry powder I thanked my insane organisation for the fresh home-made pizza sitting in front of me.

 

The cook-up

With about 6 weeks of food I’d arrive in camp ready for a cook up. Usually the first week after shopping consisted of cooking all the more perishable produce and freezing the prepared meals. This way I didn’t waste veggies or spend the last three weeks living off canned beans. At this point the freezer resembled a game of Tetris with every possible space filled and it was a challenge to find anything. I made and froze my own bread, bagels, hot cross buns and pizza bases. I baked my own snacks (and enough to feed the tea club on a weekly basis). I even learnt to freeze everything known to man (from mint to mushrooms to cheese) in a way that keeps them as close as fresh as possible.

 

Being local(ish)

Then there were the more local meals. I’ve tried mielie pap (a savoury maize-based porridge) on a number of occasions but admittedly will never like it enough to make it myself. I made a lot of Bobotie, which is sort of a South African cottage pie or lasagne. And on special occasions (birthday’s, new arrivals and farewells), we had braais. Somehow, despite my complete novice status at barbecuing I have become the camp braai master. I’m the fire wood buyer (I stocked up on a bakkie load in the Caprivi), the fire starter and the research camp chef. I prep all the veggies and cook them over the coals including delicious gem squash, potato and pumpkin gratin, and chicken covered in a local spice. No that wasn’t a mistake - I was made well aware that in Namibia the only vegetable allowed to be served at a braai is chicken and even that can be pushing it. Although, I must say that I managed to win over even the most fervent anti-veggers with my gratin, who went on to request a recipe!

 

A menu of Japanese curry, Greek salads, Bobotie, pizza, seven-veg couscous and pork miso ramen might be seen as a little extravagant for research camp life but everyone else was happy when offered left overs or baked goods! For those who asked - below is what an average shopping list looked like for 6 weeks of breakfast, lunch, dinner and weekly tea club baking contributions (not counting whatever was already frozen). Everything lasted longer than expected so I always planned fewer meals than I needed, and still ended up sharing. Some things like cream cheese and chorizo were always on the shopping list because whenever it was available I stocked up. And, never knowing what fruit was available, the fruit section was always just ‘fruit for 6 weeks’. Sometimes I got lucky and had variety, other times I got well acquainted with apples and oranges.