#50 Zambia
- Jen
- May 25, 2022
- 3 min read
Updated: Jul 4, 2022
!!Honesty alert!! I picked Turkey out of the saucepan after Bulgaria. However, four out of the last ten countries have been on the Med, and I’d like to approach Turkey with a fresh appetite for hummus and baklava, so I put it back in, and picked out Zambia instead.
Zambia is so named after the Zambezi River, to which most of the country drains and which forms the entirety of the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe to the south. The largest waterfall in the world, Victoria Falls, is situated on this river border.
This mile-wide continuous sheet of falling water, can be viewed from the bottom, from specially-constructed bridges, in helicopter rides…or, from a 3m deep natural infinity pool halfway across the falls, right on the edge of the waterfall! This is known as the Devil’s Pool, and, I kid you not, is a genuine tourist attraction. Seriously. I read online that you’re perfectly safe from crocs and hippos in this location because they’re “too sensible” to get so close to the edge…
Assuming we make it out of Victoria Falls in one piece, we continue downstream along the Zambezi to Lake Kariba, the largest reservoir in the world, formed by the construction of a 128m high double curvature concrete arch dam, the Kariba Dam. At the time of construction, this was the single greatest source of power in the southern hemisphere, and today continues to provide energy security to both Zambia and Zimbabwe.
The colossal reservoir offers ample fishing opportunities. Kapenta, a type of sardine, has been introduced to Lake Kariba and provides an important source of protein for many. These little fish are usually dried whole for preservation and can be eaten in simple, tomato-based stews.
I spent one lunchtime searching the international food shops of City Road, Cardiff for packets of little dried fish but sadly did not find any. I still managed to rustle up a Zambian-style fish stew as my cupboard is never without a spare tin of sardines. Traditional Zambian cooking is very plain, but I added some chilli powder to my tomato and sardine stew for flavour.
I served my sardine stew with some sautéed spinach. Green vegetables are commonly eaten in Zambia, for example pumpkin leaves, sweet potato leaves, spinach-type leaves, okra, etc. and they’re often stewed, sometimes with onion or tomato for more flavour, and sometimes with the addition of ground peanuts, which makes a dish called ifisashi.
I did add a blob of peanut butter to the spinach after I took this photo to get the ifisashi vibes (and because I’m a PB addict!).
Finally, we come to the most important element on the plate: the nshima.
Maize (corn) is the most important cereal crop in sub-Saharan Africa and provides the majority of daily calories for many. As I’ve touched on in my previous blogs, maize is eaten as a solid ‘porridge’, for want of a better word, a stiff cooked dough that’s used to scoop up sauces. Its name changes between country: pap-pap, posho, fufu. In Zambia, it is referred to as nshima, or ‘mealie meal’.
Nshima is made by vigorously stirring or beating fine cornmeal (what we might call polenta) into warm water, continuously adding and stirring until it forms a stuff dough. You can tear pieces off and shape them to scoop up the other dishes and sauces it’s been served with. The nshima is unseasoned so it’s all about the accompaniments!
Such is the significance of this dish in Zambia that some say you haven’t eaten unless you’ve eaten nshima. "A meal without nshima is no meal at all".
I thought about this concept last week as I was leaving a Michelin star restaurant near San Sebastián. I thought “gosh, I must be famished as I haven’t had any nshima yet today”…after my 12 courses and seven glasses of wine…
Here’s hoping for 12 courses and seven glasses of wine in…ANDORRA!
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