Growing up, the idea of bread was a myth. We only ate it when visitors came or when our parents were struck by a rare kind of benevolence. Even then we wouldd fight for the top and bottom slices, where the top one was booked for entirely a year.
And bread came once or twice, and we wouldd forget about it as soon the last slice enters the stomach. Still we’d eat our substitutes first before embarking on the rare feast.
These substitutes are:
Leftover food
Of course mother ugali stands on top. Still it was rare because we were kind of greedy every meal. There wasn’t any of it. In fact, rarely were there any leftover food. On special occasions such as your father coming around and not eating his ugali, we’d feast on it every breakfast. Leftover food that involved potatoes were the favorite of yours truly.
Mkarango/ammonia
I don’t know how to explain this delicacy to that kid who grew up on bread, with the sound of a television in the background. Basically it was maize flour that had been ‘fried.’ What you do is put flour in a sufuria, or if you are intending to make busaa, a large half cut metal drum, add a little water as you turn it over constantly. Of course there must be fire. This was a breakfast delicacy; discounting the fact that mother was preparing you a whole day in the farm.
Roasted/boiled maize
If you shared a mother with yours truly then you know how much she detested roasting maize in the mornings. When other kids were showing up to school with well roasted maize, you were made do with begging. But on some occasions she did roast, and I swear it is a delicacy, such a delicacy that you shouldn’t be allowed to vote if you did not taste. You would ask yourself: who needs bread anyway?
The secret about these three substitutes was to take them cold. You took a bite of hot tea and it cooled it at an instant. If you were competing with siblings, this would be an opportune moment to outwit them.
My sister, she had a sort of a cooler in her mouth. She would finish a cup when you were at half way mark but not when there was a piece of ugali.
#hivisasaoriginal