African Cuisine: Botswana Food Adventures

Hello everyone, I know life has been exciting with Africa and hate to leave y’all hanging but but OCD will be on a brief hiaitus as I take my US Medical Licensing exam/ medical boards and it’s crunch time! Wish me luck! 

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You can read about my Africa journey here (what I’m doing), here (adjusting to expat life), and here (what seeing kids in HIV clinic is like)

I promise to share tons of Africa cuisine recipes and stories when I return. In the meantime, enjoy some photos of the fabulous food of Botswana / Africa which I’ll update later, and as always, I’ll keep updating in instagram

My first traditional Botswana meal! What is that you ask? Samp (maize kernels), beets, beef steak, and phaphatha bread (roast bread like an English muffin).

The traditional 3 legged pot to stew meat: here is seswaa aka pulled beef (their national dish) and fried beef.

Seswaa (pulled beef) and fried beef inside their adorable traditional three legged iron pots! I wanted to buy one but my luggage had no space.
On the plate: classic sides of pap (maize porriage) butternut squash, peanut morogo (wild African greens), sampu (corn), vegetable medley, and tomato morogo (African green)

The famous Savannah cider of Africa. Delicious!

The adorable Courtyard Restaurant, right next to Botswanacraft market which sells amazing things!

People of Botswana really love candy! Literally everywhere you go there’s people selling candy/lollipops on the street under little umbrellas. Look at that color! At the market, all sorts of grain / beans / starch to be haggled for (Africa is not a good place for carb free diets). One of the front desk ladies at the HIV clinic I work at kindly gave me a sack of sorghum – no idea how to cook it.

Rooibos, or redbush, tea. Five roses is the popular brand. Full of antioxidants and amazingly delicious, especially with milk and sugar (British style). A local woman asked me in horror how can I possibly drink tea without sugar.

Delicious breakfast at the Chobe Bush Lodge! Love those African cloth patterns!

Interestingly they don’t refrigerate eggs here – they just leave the cartons sitting on the shelves! Of course, I bought lots of souvenirs including the famous Botswana baskets (I’m in love with the honeypot shaped one). I barely made the 23 kg weight limit for luggage!
Here’s all the fruit I ate on my last day – lemon from a garden, orange from the street stall, and a baby pineapple from the local grocery (on sale for 20 cents!)

Tsamaya sentle (Goodbye/go well!) for now!

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2 Comments

  1. Oh my gosh I LOVED you Africa journey story!! Literally read every post you have about it and drool over the recipes (the matcha cake looks oh so delish!) I'm an expat here in the US so I really understand how weird/difficult/exciting everything is!!

  2. It's so awesome that you are training in Botswana. I am trying to raise some money to donate to a lion conservation project in Botswana, and have been very curious about the place. Thanks for giving me some idea about the food.

  3. It's a great country to visit – north Botswana is the tourist site with all the animals and national parks, so I'd recommend there (I lived in the capital Gabarone in the south. Not as much as a tourist hot spot – BUT it does have the biggest hospital, hence me being there).