Bizarre Foods Madagascar

I’m going to start off this post with the disclaimer that if you have a weak stomach (Christine) you probably shouldn’t read this whole post. I’ll tell you when to stop. Or if you are feeling brave and have already fully satisfied your hunger for the day with delicious food (which you should do on my behalf anyhow) and are not going to eat again soon, read on if you dare.

Before I came to Mada, there was an episode of the TV show Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmer on the Travel Channel where he came to Madagascar. We DVRed it (side note: I just need to say that having all your favorite TV shows at your fingertips all the time is crazy, let alone having them once a week at a given time, on time) and watched the episode. I’m pretty sure Christine said something like “if I come visit you, I am bringing all my food with me.” Well, it turns out living in Madagascar has given me my own little bizarre foods experience which I feel like I should share with all of you out there enjoying heaping portions of macaroni and cheese or pizza or hamburgers or risotto or vegetable stir fries or lasagna or ice cream or cake or whatever delicious treat you happen to indulge in. (In case you couldn’t tell I have been suffering from vivid food dreams here.) Food is also one of those topics of discussion that can get me through a long conversation in Malagasy that goes something like this:

“Do you have X in the U.S.?”

“Yes.”

“Do you have Y in the U.S.?”

“No.”

“Have you ever eaten Y?”

“No.”

Laughter. (sometimes this results in a gift of food Y and demo of how to consume it)

“Do you know how to cook Z?”

“No I don’t know how.”

“Well first you wash it, then you peel it, then… It’s good mixed with coconut or oil or meat or…”

…

It’s also very entertaining for everyone when I go to the market and point at various fruits or vegetables and ask what they are and how to cook/eat them. Another favorite topic of conversation is what the “ro” is at one’s house, meaning what is the dish you ate with your rice today? (Because obviously you are having rice at every meal, right?)

Something new at my site is the amazing selection of tropical fruits. They tend to go in and out of season very quickly; one week there will be so many of one fruit you don’t think you will ever want one again and then in 2 weeks they are impossible to find. We have lechees; I am told that the lechees in season now (they are called “lechee kakazo” and are raspberry-colored, golfball-sized with soft spikes) are not even as delicious as the real lechees which are only in season around December. Then there was “saokoana” which I would say is kind of a cross between a peach and a mango with a little apple thrown in. It’s sort of apple-sized, you peel it and eat the insides and it has a spiky peach-like pit. Very tangy and kind of a weird flavor but yummy nonetheless. There is also “corresol,” a big green fruit with what I can only describe as tiny black dimples (that is a terrible description but bear with me). The inside is soft and white with smooth black seeds. Corresol juice is incredibly delicious. Today I tried “ampalibe,” a huge yellow, scaly fruit. Inside it looks kind of like fat pieces of spaghetti and you eat the soft part around the seeds.

Pretty much everything here can and is cooked with coconut milk. (Someone else in the region is actually trying to count all the things she has eaten with coconut here.) Things you can eat with coconut milk: cassava leaves, chicken, fish, corn, plantains, any type of greens, breadfruit…

Bananas: there is an amazing selection of bananas. I think there is something like 8 types, ranging from bananas the length of the palm of your hand to almost the length of your arm. There are bananas you can eat when ripe and those that you have to cook before eating.

Ranonampango: Rice water. After they cook the rice, there are usually some burnt remains in the pot. They pour in water and boil it over the burnt rice remnants and you drink this at the end of the meal. It basically is rice tea; before coming I had one of those Nuvi brand teas that was rice-flavored and tastes kind of similar. It’s an acquired taste; I think it’s alright but other volunteers hate it. The Malagasy people at my site are always shocked when I tell them we don’t have ranonampango in the states.

Ananas: greens. There are lots of different types of greens (as in the U.S.) but it is hard to tell what they will taste like. The names are somewhat descriptive. For instance “ananas mafana” means hot greens, they are not exactly spicy but they give your mouth the tingly sensation like when your feet fall asleep. “Ananas be” means big greens, looks just like green leaf lettuce but can be more bitter. “Ananas mamy” means sweet greens, they aren’t really sweet.

Lately some of my adopted Malagasy families here have been having quite the time of introducing me to new foods. It’s really kind of funny the contrast between my reaction and theirs. Whereas they think eating something is totally normal because they have always eaten it and so does everyone else, I am confused or shocked by it and just have to say nope, I’ve never eaten that. It’s probably a good thing that I gave up my years of vegetarianism a while before I came here otherwise this would certainly be extra difficult.

*Here is the really bizarre portion, stop reading if you are easily grossed out or about to eat. Go eat a cookie or a sandwich for me instead.

The first really bizarre foods experience was cow’s feet. Not delicious and I am going to spare you the details (if you are curious, shoot me an email or letter and I’ll describe more.) I think they could tell I was a little freaked out and I said I had never eaten cow’s feet before, which led to a discussion of foods that are “fady” or taboo. I couldn’t really think of anything that’s a taboo across the board in the U.S. Some Malagasy people don’t eat pork because it’s “fady”; I guess you could say that eating parts of the animal like the feet is sort of taboo in the U.S. It’s kind of hard to think of those kind of things under pressure and besides I don’t really feel okay telling them that I won’t eat the food they are kindly sharing with me.

The next bizarre food was cow’s heart. They made it on sort of kabobs, and since I had already eaten the kabobs (“brochettes” or “moustik”) with regular cuts of meat I didn’t realize that it was heart until towards the end of the meal. I can’t say I regret not knowing. I’m pretty sure I will have eaten most parts of the cow by the time I leave Mada, as I was told it is okay to eat everything on the cow. The newest addition was cow skin. Yes, cow skin. Luckily this was delivered to my house, where though I felt obliged to at least try a bite I could discreetly give it to the dogs. This was one of those that they thought was really funny we don’t eat. It was delivered to my house by a third party who didn’t actually know what he was delivering. When I lifted the lid he just said “oh, it’s cow skin,” in a way that insinuated that this is a perfectly normal side dish.

This past week I was shown a type of bug that they eat here, though we didn’t eat it. The bug is actually slightly scary looking, it has kind of a long nose (the proboscis maybe? My apologies to those of you who are actually good at entomology) but unfortunately I already forgot the name. They assured me that it was a nice, fatty food (this is an excellent thing in the opinion of the Malagasy).

Dry fish was something focused on in the TV show and there is definitely no shortage of it at my site. I think it is one of the major sources of protein for people here. Bascially they take the fish and splay it down the middle, then dry it. Does not smell particularly good in the market.

Well that pretty much wraps it up for now though I am sure there will be more exciting food adventures to come. I hope you enjoyed reading or at least were not too freaked out!