BOCHOO!

IT’S TASTY! IT’S CALLED BOCHOO!

Imagine you are travelling for about eight hours. If you are travelling by private car or public bus, you make stops at takeaway outlets and buy your refreshments. If you are travelling by air, an air hostess will wake you to some warm munchies that may include fresh juices.

This is because your body demands to be nourished for renewed energy and keep healthy.

So it is with us travelling to Ungland. When we have been paddling a laden boat or canoe over a distance of more than 30 kilometers, we stop to fill the tanks. 

We fix some original and real fast food! The difference is that our fastest meal will be complemented with delicious stuff known as Bochoo. It is indeed some quick delicacy that should not take a lot of time. The meal is better taken while it is hot.

 

The other difference with what you pals consume on the plane, your car or bus is that we cook our own while you get it ready-made. Here is how accomplished Unga sous-chefs do it:

 Boil well quantified water at 100 degrees Celsius. Take the water off fire. Take a good equivalent measure of cassava meal and pour it into the hot water. Accurate measurements are necessary if you do not want to go against our cherished adage, “amenshi balinga no bunga.”(Match the quantity of water to the equivalent Mealie meal)

 Mix until you get a solidified porridge called Nshima. It has to be done off-fire otherwise it will be elasticizing like plasticized chewing gum which can earn you enemies of travel companions!

The real one is hard and soft which glides down your gullet leaving you feeling like a real human. That sensation you feel when you eat what you certainly like, yeah!

Get the right sized natural swampy bred redbreast tilapia we call Mpende.

Carefully reap the bream in small cuts on both sides and spread quarter ounce of raw table salt. Place the fish direct on fire and let it roast for 6-10 minutes before turning it to the opposite side. Repeat the process with the rest of the fish according to the number of travellers.

Can see you are salivating to join the travelling team? Yes!

 Mind you, we rarely share a fish between two. The unwritten rule is each one for himself, or better, one man one sunfish.

Serve the meal in the center of any space around the cooking spot, and please don’t look at the size of my morsels and the speed at which I am tanking my belly. My tummy is empty and so justice demands that to every action, there be equal but opposite reaction.

 My granny would tell me not to worry about who is watching; “ombela umo ombela, amenso ya bantu tayalya!(Ignore the spectator))”

I surely only mind my own business because this is BOCHOO (roasted) and there is nothing like it anywhere! More importantly, it is roasted by fwebene (ourselves)! And it is really fast too!