Of mice and maize

Back home most food supplies are available throughout the year in our well-stocked supermarkets. Living here though you come to appreciate the availability and seasonality of food much more. We’re still mid-mango season, and avocados and pineapples are available from street vendors all around Kasungu. That said, the staple (maize) is in short supply. Now is the hungry season whilst people have planted their fields and wait for crops to be ready for harvest; last year’s stocks are dwindling and the cost of maize is rising.

I enjoy the local staple, msima (made with maize flour and roughly comparable in texture to mashed potato) with beans or local vegetables. One of my more adventurous attempted forays into local food, however, was an altogether less enticing prospect: mice on a stick (photo). I somewhat foolhardily agreed to try them as they are a local delicacy. However, when faced with the critters, looking uncooked, furry and in a state of toothy rigor shock, I just couldn’t bring myself to do it! They did make one of the guards of the guesthouse I stay at very happy though and he polished every last mousey morsel off in no time.