Eat Like Ushi

Deep in the heart of Africa lies Galito's, their local answer to the Western world's Nando's. I still think London Nando's (tried at O2 arena and Shoreditch) is better quality than those I've had in Melbourne possibly due to them being generally large sit in restaurants complete with table service.

In Lusaka, it is located along a small section of fast food eat-in or takeaways right next to a petrol station. The menu seems identical to Nando's - grilled chicken with a choice of spiciness, chips, bean salad and coleslaw. There are bottles of periperi sauce to lather your food in more flavour.

Compared to London Nando's, the chicken is slightly thinner with similar flavour. Chips weren't as crispy. The salads seemed the same. The price is naturally much much cheaper.

Neither are similar to the periperi chicken I had in Lisbon, but they'll happily do for a tasty meal.

After the adventurous buses and exploration of Livingstone and Victoria Falls, there was one more night in the Lusaka Backpackers before flying out to Nairobi. There wasn't much in the way of particular places to eat at and I felt taking a taxi somewhere (which would have been to one of the further away shopping malls if I did), Chit Chat was a close walkable distance and had at least a few favourable comments online.

The evening walk through the streets included past an armed friendly security guard, along dark streets with lights and into what looked like more suburban neighbourhood.

On this evening all the streets and also the cafe was quite empty. Pork ribs ZMB60 were plentiful and had a nice BBQ sauce. They weren't the most tender but satisfying enough. Imported prawn curry ZMB60 were small and came served with mash and vegetables. The food was adequate but nothing more - a closeby meal for a casual evening.

Walking back to the backpackers, the streets had become more populous with women standing under trees and on street corners. It looked as though this was the street area after dark also.

During the first morning in Zambia, we walked from the hotel toward town. Enroute there was a older lady grilling cassava over charcoal and sprinkled with salt. It was a simple introduction to food in Africa. I was hoping this would start a nice trip to the City Market and there would be some nice street foods to sample. Unfortunately the only things I found there were a wide variety of vegetables, fruit, fish and meat but not much cooked things.

A walk back through town led to Fajema which seemed the first opportunity to try a variety of local specialties - nshima and the ubiquitous fried chicken. The place had a simple diner setting and a few people stopped by outside the window to stare or ask for money.

- 2 pieces chicken & chips - chicken not too dry, flavour similar to a mild form of KFC. Standard chips and coleslaw;
- nshima & fish - plain grilled fish, not too dry, served on top of a few stewed vegetable dishes including the slightly bitter rape national dish.

The first experience with nshima was interesting. It takes a particular skill to use one hand to tear and roll a small section, create a pocket in the middle, hold it in your palm and fill it with ingredients. Nshima itself is a very plain flour and water mix like a smooth blend of slightly textured playdough. I can't say I prefer it to rice, but it's different and makes eating interesting.