Madagastro

Welcome a pilot of a potential new series in this blog: Madagastro. It was largely Paul's idea, so really you should just give him credit.

One of the things we love about our beautiful home (remind me—I'll post pictures of the place some time) is the kitchen. It's huge and well lit. We have an oven and a fridge. While living in Mahabo, my meals were largely based on what I could make and eat before the food spoiled (remember it was super hot there). It's true that I expanded my options when I got my solar oven—pizza, hummus, baba ganush, breads, etc. But still—without a fridge, you buy food from the market for that day only, and you must finish everything you eat before ants decide to help out. The ants hit before the food turns nasty.

Having a fridge allows us to invest in things like condiments. It allows us to buy kilos of food on the weekend, and use it all week. (In Mahabo I bought a small pile of each ingredient I needed.) There are also WAY more food options here in Fianar—both in the market because we're in a more productive region food-wise, and also in the fancy food department because we have a couple shops with a bunch of imported things from the Western world.

The point is, we experiment way more with food, for various reasons. Including the fact that it's easier to cook for two than one, and it's easier to be motivated to make fancy food when you know that someone else will enjoy it.

So... we decided to share our food adventures. Now, it may turn out that you think it is ridiculous. Perhaps the food looks and tastes better to us because we have lived without it since October. But then again, maybe you will like it—either because it makes you appreciate what you have more, or because it gives you ideas for your own cooking that desperation has not yet driven you to discover. We'll give it a go and decide later whether or not there will be a sequel...

I'm going to break this into chunks to make it easier for you. Maybe it's just me but when I see unending text on a blog everything gets fuzzy and I get lazy and decide not to read it. So I'll try to make sure that doesn't happen to you....