Ah yes, another cooking blog.... but wait, there's a twist! How do you take recipes you love and adapt it to what is available in South Sudan? Thus far, my experience has been this: for baking, add 2-3 hours onto any prep/baking time, add a little sand and desperation for baked goods. For cooking, never assume that what is available in the market today will be available tomorrow, you will always spend much more than you want if you buy ingredients at JIT, and be prepared to be interrupted by power failure.
I have worked in Sudan on two different occasions in the last year: once for 3 months and once for 6 months. Now, I about to come back for a full year. During my previous stints, I did little to nothing in the way of cooking and only a bit of baking when my colleagues and I could muster enough motivation (which was not often). As a result, I suffered from dishes made for me, which were swimming in oil (literally, you had to search to find the food at times!) and concoctions I couldn't even begin to describe. I'm still wondering what was in some of those meals... To be fair, I have also had some wonderful food from local restaurants and have been surprised at times by those who are cooking for my colleagues and I.
Nevertheless it is time to take a stand. Working anywhere from 8-11 hours a day up to 7 days a week is not conducive to cooking and baking for yourself, but if my arteries and my foodie soul is to live through this next stint, I have to do it. My goal is to eat food made by me at least 3 times a week on average, and hopefully I can increase it if all goes according to plan. Sadly, nothing ever does go according to plan, so I'm just going to stick to my goal of 3 times and be pleasantly surprised if I surpass that goal.
In short, I will cook/bake old & new recipes and with this blog, document my successes and failures in making them in South Sudan.
Wish me luck.
Signing off,
Nikki
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