Chiwawa, Kapenta and Nshima, Oh My!

Here is the truth about traveling for work: it is mostly just a lot of work.

I was a bit worried about what I'd write about today, because since arriving my activities have included:

1. Working in my hotel room
2. Working in my hotel dining room
3. Working my hotel bar
4. Working in a training session
5. Working in my Zambia team's office

But there are upsides as well, such as hotel breakfasts. I like them. A lot.

YES.

When I make my first billion, the first thing I will do is hire a full-time chef to make me an omelette and coffee and cut up fresh fruit every morning for my breakfast.

"But that's silly," you say, "and wasteful. Why would you hire a full-time chef just to make you breakfast?"

But don't worry. I will be a billionaire. Plus, I really enjoy having someone make breakfast for me, and it's my money, OK? Yeesh. Anyway it wouldn't ONLY be omelettes and coffee. I'd have him do something complicated sometimes, like fresh croissants.

Also, today's lunch was pretty fun- pictured at right.

• Chiwawa- This is essentially Zambian pesto, made of pumpkin leaves and peanuts. It isn't sweet, but very rich and creamy- it's served as a cold stew or a side dish. 
• Kapenta- Little tiny sardine things. You can just barely see them, at 12 o'clock on my plate to the right. They are sold in bulk, dried, at the grocery store, and they are quite...aromatic. Perhaps the Paleo people would recommend them as an airplane snack for the ride home? Anyway, I didn't want to buy a gross of them, but at lunch they had them available, fried, as a side dish. They are sort of reminiscent of dried cuttlefish, or dried shrimp like you sometimes get in Thai food- very fishy, but also very robust and full of umami- having tasted them, I think they must go in a lot of the food here, as a flavoring. 
• Nshima- Essentially thicker, stickier grits, this stuff is made of corn and is the traditional Zambian starch. It is very filling and eating too much of it when you're jet lagged and then returning to the office is not recommended, in case you're wondering. It's the thing that looks like a softball in the picture, which is, oddly, also how it feels once in your belly.

In addition, I had some sort of curried chicken whose sauce you could dip the nshima in- all in all, very satisfying- much more so than the hotel spaghetti I had last night. And of course, washed down with that most Zambian of beverages, an icy cold Coca Cola.

Paleo's taking a bit of a hit, this week, but that's probably to be expected. When in Africa, right?

Hi from Zambia!