Termites (AKA white ants) another Tasty Treat

Another tasty treat that we just enjoyed this week is termites (locally called white ants). While this was nothing new for Eric, it was very new for me. As we are in the midst of the rainy season, termites are usually hovering around lights after the rain drives them out of their homes. People are very happy when this happens because it is a free source of good protein.

Now I must admit that I might have been more leery of trying a termite if I would not have been in a group situation. Our friend, Sarah, offered to cook some for us and our friends at a dinner party that we hosted this past weekend. We cooked them with their wings in a frying pan without any oil. The cooking killed them, and then we plucked off their wings and dug in. Eric used to enjoy these in DR Congo without frying them, but we weren’t quite up for that. Now to my shock, all of us that tried them for the first time agreed that they are very good. Granted it was a little weird knowing that we were eating an insect, but if you kept this in the back of your mind, then it tasted like you were having a very tasty bowl of popcorn or maybe they tasted a little like pork rinds. So if you were in Arua now, we could not only offer you some good avocados and passion fruit but also some yummy termites.

Green Goodness

As our endeavor to have a garden has produced little fruit, we are excited to now have a plethora of avocados. If you were all here, we would have enough for each of you plus some. Our trees are bending at the weight of them. It is a nice problem to have. We now always have something to give to someone when they visit, and we have some tasty salads and toppings for our fajitas. When you mention to a Ugandan that an avocado in the US can cost $2, their face registers shock. Here an avocado costs around 200 shillings (about $.08).

Another fruit of choice here is the passion fruit. While you can find these in the supermarkets in the US, they are about $1 a piece. One would cost only a few cents here. We love the sour but sweet taste of this fruit. It makes a wonderful juice, but we prefer to just scoop them out with a spoon. This picture is one of our several passion fruit vines; as you can see, they have a very unique flower. We aren’t sure if they produce more passion, but they certainly don’t hurt.

Hope that you enjoy seeing a couple of the tasty reasons for living in Uganda.