Local or international?

My friend helper came back from our local market this morning empty handed. Why I asked? Apparently, she did not recognise most of the vegetables on the stall and she was afraid to make mistakes. I decided that I would go myself to find out. And yes, I understood what she meant. There were different onions, different cucumbers, different honey, different green leaf vegetables!
When I asked the names of these strange looking vegetables, the seller did not know but he explained how each one tastes! I took the risk, bought the one that looked like a spaceship and spent time on the net to find out. To my amazement, the one which is supposed to be called a horned African cucumber was after all a melon that the vendor could have waited until it was ripe and yellow so it would have tasted like a mix of jelly, banana, and zucchini! Well, I learnt something today! I only buy local vegetables and look what I found. An ancestor of cucumber which originated from Africa! YES. Buy local if you can and you learn something new. Spiky cucumber.

Thank you Malala for taking the photo while I was sniffing the spaceship! :)

I cut it in half, scooped the inside and ate it. People, you do not need vinegar or lime! It is already naturally with the taste of lemon. I just added a bit of salt, pepper and drops of olive oil... Yummy!

KOBA, Malagasy pudding

Today I would like to introduce to you the first kind of koba. I had this one for breakfast earlier on in the morning today since I had to do some physical work and needed a bit more energy. It is made out of rice and banana. Normally, it is already sweet enough but I added a teaspoon of forest honey as well. It is so delicious and I have to admit that wherever I go these days, I always make a new version of koba because I have to eat it at least once a week. As I mentioned before, I was so inspired by this food that I wrote a song about it. You can listen and watch the Koba video clip here!

Bidens pilosa - Asteraceae or Anatsinahy

Bidens pilosa, or Anatsinahy in Malagasy.
In the highlands of Madagascar, we eat quite a lot of leaf vegetables. It is easy and cheap because it grows everywhere. This one is a strong medicinal plant that lots of generations have been using in my family. When you look it up on the Internet, it has so many names and so many usage so make sure you search for it with its scientific name to avoid confusion.
It is considered to be a weed, a nasty one since it can take over your whole land! But in Madagascar, we eat so much of it, you will be surprised that it is almost disappearing in my region. People love its tender young leaves so they pick it up too early. After few years, there aren't many left and they wonder why. It has to be left alone to spread more seeds to get more Bidens pilosa! I grow it in my garden these days because I particularly like it for tea, for salad, to stir fry quickly and to mix it with raw peanuts. It has a bitter taste but that is where the good stuff is! I recommend not to take that away.
I stumble upon this site to find out more about Bidens Pilosa, Anatsinahy.

Red rice

Rice is our staple food and there isn’t any food talk without talking about rice! As you may know by now, there are more than 40.000 types of rice in the world but I eat mostly red rice. I know where to find the best kind and there is plenty in Madagascar. We cook rice in so many different ways but I like it when it is possible to separate the grains when it’s cooked. 

• I eat rice everyday to accompany my meal and I eat it with beans and vegetables.
• We also make a kind of rice soup (vary sosoa) that I prefer to eat with honey
•  I use it for salads and for a pudding called Koba.

I wrote a song based on Koba recipe in my album Soul Makassar to bring this traditional famous dessert back on fancy restaurant menus!
When travelling, I bring my red rice with me and sometimes, I mix it with black rice that I find in health food store these days. Rice provides lots of energy. You will benefit from learning how to cook it properly and have it on your diet.

I also like to drink the ranon'apango, which is basically the rice water that comes out after it is cooked. That is the drink we have on the table!

Sunday, sorting out day

Wow, it’s been a week already since my first post on Zen Food. The response has been amazing because I have had people from all around the globe to send me questions and viewing the blog! Thank you for your support. Food is an important part of our life and so many of us are keen to eat better, eat for our health and care for our planet. Within a week, there has been more than 20 countries that viewed the blog and my target is to share it as much as possible. From Madagascar to Qatar, Italy, UK, Mauritius, Lebanon, Greece, Cameroon, USA, Finland, France and so many more. I hope you like the blog and you will also share your good food practises and experiences with us.

Sunday is a sorting out day for me so I spent three hours in the garden to weed and took pictures of the homeless very free range chickens!

Red grapes for snacks or dessert

To finish my food of the day, I eat tons of grapes. I prefer red when they are in season. I collected these In my very small garden this morning. I eat them raw as they are. When I feel I had enough, I put them in salads or make juice and very rarely, I cook them in sauce accompanying poultry.
All in all, I eat everything in the fruit. No waste here.

I must say that during the season of grapes, I eat loads and I replace them with glasses of red wine when the season is over. I urge you to learn about the fruits'anti-aging and heart protection functions. Pretty amazing really! I hope you will have your own plant, it is so beautiful when they are ripe!

Madagapotamon Humberti, Foza kely

My food today is a big plate of small fresh water crab or foza kely. It has been raining in the last 2 days in the highlands of Antananarivo and small fresh water crabs are thriving in any collection of water. They taste so good, you won't believe you can actually eat as many as 50 crabs. In fact, it is not a plate for the squeamish neither for those who look for big chunk of meat because there isn't any! Check out on the net its nutritional benefits and you will be surprised why you didn't eat them before.

Here is a brief environmental information for the week-end. Madagapotamon humberti is the scientific name of the foza kely. Madagascar has 12 species of fresh water crabs and these are all endemic to the island. They are found in inland water ecosystems throughout Madagascar, in rivers, streams, ponds, lakes, and marshes, or wherever there is freshwater collection . Andava-pofotra.

How this one was prepared? Well, very simple. You buy your foza kely still alive, you clean them well and you drop then in a pan with onion, tomato, garlic and a bit of ginger and serve with parsley and finely chopped spring onions! How you eat them is another matter!