Food, glorious food!

Hello all,

As you will all be very aware, food is an absolutely key part of Rach and my lives, so how have we managed out here...?

Not too badly I think. Breakfasts started off with cornflakes, but these were a bit rubbish and pretty expensive, and muesli doesn't exist out here, so we have since switched to bread and honey and fruit (it's green tangerine season at the moment - sorry no photos - so we have about a tonne of them to eat , yum!). Honey is fairly expensive, but we have found it brightens any meal so it's a wee treat to ourselves.

Lunches at the moment are fantastic! Avocado, tomato and marmite sandwiches. Delicious! With more tangerines and bananas for pudding. Not the ubiquitous cheese which was the staple of our UK lives, but a great alternative while the avocado season lasts. Marmite too is fairly expensive, but again is a great source of flavourful yumminess. We believe the avocado season may be closing soon though, so we'll have to think about our alternatives. To keep our dairy levels up in the absence of cheese, we have a wee glass of milk at breakfast.

Tea is pretty varied. We were provided with some mince and chicken pieces in the freezer when we arrived, and we've had some dishes involving those meats, plus sausages from a supermarket (meat seems to be similar prices to the UK, so pretty expensive for here). We bought dried fish (tiny little ones in a bag) last night and added them to a tomato and veg sauce - it was quite delicious, so that may well happen again. We bought some 'curry' powder from the indian spice shop in Blantyre but it is all smell and no taste unfortunately - however we have some of the Malawian staple Peri-Peri hot sauce, and chilis in the garden, so we can make things as hot as we can handle. And for pudding, more fruit and honey - yum!

Fresh coffee is really expensive out here (around 5 - 8 pounds per bag) so my tastebuds are adjusting to instant again - it's not as bad as I'd feared, although I do still crave a big steaming cup of black gold occasionally.

Still haven't seen any of the fabled rat-on-a-stick yet...