Food

It’s easy, it’s healthy, and it’s delicious with a cup of tea or coffee. Another bonus is that you can eat it for breakfast, lunch, or dinner (or in the dark). I dabbled a bit with roasting my own peanuts, but buying peanut butter is definitely much easier. Furthermore, one of my well-organized friends has influenced me to buy plenty of extras for my pantry, so I always have some in stock. I’m not sure why I had to re-learn that skill, but it has paid off big time.

I don’t really like sweets very much and, unless I’m out and about pretending to be fancy, I don’t usually eat dessert after dinner. Having said that, I love the sweetness that toasted brown bread, peanut butter, and honey has. That brings me to my point: toast and peanut butter, washed down with a cup of coffee, is the perfect way to end an evening after eating a few grilled cheese sandwiches for dinner.

Good night.

Food, Travel

If you don’t like the sour Ethiopian bread injera, steer clear of “Tibs Firfir”! It’s number 50 on the menu at the National Cafe in downtown Addis, next to the National Theater and the big lion statue. In Amharic it looks like this: ጥብስ ፍርፍር. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. I made a bit of a mistake ordering dinner tonight with a friend in Addis Ababa. We decided we both liked tibs, an Ethiopian dish with roasted meat and, sometimes, tasty sauteed vegetables. What we didn’t know is that the “firfir” changes the game completely! Your itty bitty pieces of meat come mixed with shredded injera wrapped in a huge, pancake-like injera!

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Food, Kenya

Since I moved into my new house last week I’ve been exploring cooking again. It’s been a few months since I cooked last, instead I’ve been opting to eat out or make simple things like toast with peanut butter. It was fine with me because I eat something healthy like yogurt with granola before work, then a good, hearty meal at ILRI’s cafeteria every day — meals at home were more of a casual “tide myself over until lunch tomorrow” thing. All other reasons aside, I guess it really boils down to not feeling “at home” in my old apartment. The stove was only 1/4 functional, the pots and pans were funny, the sink was dinky, and there were always people coming and going.

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