School Lunch, week 1!

One of the virtues of volunteering at the school is that I get to relive school lunch for two weeks! Seriously, though, it is a great avenue into local Rwandese cooking.

The first dish came from the lunch for the engagement party. As such, it had some celebrated favorites. It was headlined by the meat brochettes, skewered and grilled. Accompanying the main event were a variety of side dishes, including a carrot salad, fresh onion, tomato, and pepper salad, a variant of coleslaw, and irish potatoes. And for dessert, a small banana. A great introduction - the irish potatoes had a lovely sauce on them and I'm always game for grilled meat.

The second day at school brought another lunch. This one consisted of a kidney bean, tomato, and onion stew, boiled potatoes, and cooked pasta. The pasta and potatoes were very straight forward - providing the daily dose of starch but little else. The stew, however, was scrumptious, with the flavors of the ingredients combining with unknown spices to be instantly eatable.

The third day brought another special treat: sombe. Sombe is a dish made from the leaves of the cassava plant. It is a brilliant green color, it looks much like the indian dish saag. However the flavor is much herbier, with the specific herb hard to put one's finger on. Methi, perhaps? I dunno, but with the hot chutney provided, this was delicious. The kidney bean stew and rice were great complements - though I could've done just with the sombe!

Clearly beats the pink slime and chocolate milk of American school lunches. I can't wait to see what next week will bring!