Spoiled

I’m spoiled. It’s official. I’m spoiled with fruit. I’m spoiled with fresh and awesome vegetables.

The amount of food processing that exists in Madagascar is drastically lower than in the states. Malagasy, and often me too, go to the market daily to buy the food that they will cook that day. Sure, they keep some things around the house, a little sugar, some salt and of course, rice. But with most Malagasy having no refrigeration and little storage in their kitchens, they buy what they need that day.

I don’t follow this lifestyle completely. I do have a fridge, and I buy things at the supermarket here as well as the market. I buy strange things that Malagasy would never know what to do with like baking powder, canned chickpeas and peanut butter! But, I do my best to buy as much as I can at the market. I know that when I buy things at the market, I am helping to pay for the food of the family of the seller that I bought from directly. As I wrote about in a recent post, I have become friends with many of the sellers at my nearby market, and I know that the tomatoes that I bought today directly help them as well as helping me make fantastic guacamole.

Fruits and vegetables here are also much fresher than what most people eat on a regular basis in the United States, especially in the winter of Minnesota. You can see this directly at the market, when you see potatoes still caked in dirt or when the seller takes the white beans out of their shell as you come to see how much they are. Also, it’s common to have fruit trees in your yard that you can pick fresh fruit off of. Mostly, these are just plants that grow and the only work that the people nearby have to do is pick the fruit when it’s ready. I have banana trees in my yard, avocado trees and grape vines nearby as well as some other things. I picked some fresh bananas in December and just the other day helped my neighbor pick some avocados, and got to take a few home for myself.

You can also taste this freshness. It’s especially true with fruit. Mangoes, pineapples, bananas, guava, litche. I have been so spoiled. I’m not sure that I will ever be able to eat these fruits again when I return to the states. Mango and litche seasons are finished. But, there are always pineapples and bananas and guava season is just starting. Today I bought five guavas for ariary zato, or about 3 cents. A zato can buy you a lot street foods here, but I’m definitely going to go nuts of eating lots of guavas until the season is over. I always tell people, “tsy maintsy mihinina voankazo rehetra izao satria ratsy any Amerika!” “I must eat all the fruit now because it’s bad in America!” This always gets a laugh.

This freshness is true about the butcher too. Most chicken here is bought live and you butcher, pluck and all at home. Sometimes at restaurants in the states when the food is taking a long time to arrive, sometimes we joke that they had to kill the chicken first. Here, that’s actually quite a good possibility. If you walk around the big market here in Fianar early enough on any given morning, you will see the newly butchered pigs being carried into the market.  This used to gross me out, but at this point, I have accepted it and am just glad that I don’t have to wash the laundry of the men that do the butchering.

I currently have half a chicken cooking (I didn’t actually butcher it myself, but it did come with more parts than expected still attached), tomatoes and cilantro are soaking in bleach water to make sure they are clean. Soon, I will make chicken flavored with Mexican type spices and tomatoes and some guacamole to go with it. I will make sure to have to lots of guava for dessert. I’m making the most off all of these fresh things that grow so close to my house.