Swaziland eats

Contrary to my apprehensions, yes, you can get every kind of food here. Most of it is imported from South Africa. Certain types of food that only Westerners really eat tend to be markedly more expensive - most especially, dairy products such as milk, yoghurt and butter. Lactose intolerance is common, and even then Swazis are far more likely to eat emasi than yoghurt.

Everything else, like fresh food and vegetables, meat and cereals are common and not too pricey. I'm also enjoying the South African influence - biltong and koeksisters are favourites!

There's not much of a culture of eating out in Mbabane, so that, coupled with being housebound from 5pm, has meant that I've been developing my primitive cooking abilities in leaps and bounds.

Rising an hour before bathing to turn on the geyser for hot water has also meant that I've taken to the occasional bout of morning baking, with the great advantage of having an officeful of people who will eat my fluffy banana bread offerings. I've been keeping my bread-and-butter puddings to myself though - too good not to keep for breakfasts.

My dinner staple is still stew, which has the advantage of heavy duty boiling of everything fresh which might contain nasty bugs. I've also made venison chops, roasted pumpkins, and quite a nice carrot soup, with about a kilo of carrots and spices I boiled down into a thick, smooth and delicious dish. I haven't been sick yet, but I've been warned to watch out for broccoli. The fronds catch bacteria and bugs that you might miss just by washing it, so I bring all broccoli to the boil before I use it cooking. I tend to wash all fruit and veg with boiling or boiled water, and of course I'm only drinking boiled water.

Thus far, I’ve tasted three quintessential Swazi foods.

First, chicken stew, which is basically chicken on the bone boiled for hours and served on a bed of pap (a sort of maize porridge), with a side of diced spinach and often beetroot. Pap is the African staple, but there’s currently a bit of a culture war going on between pap and rice. Chicken stew is tasty (kumnandze!) and nutritious, but it’s not traditional in Swaziland to use much in the way of spice or flavouring.

Second, chicken dust. The Durban version of this apparently involves chicken feet (and the name 'chicken dust' comes from feet scratching in dust) but here it is a quarter chicken roasted over an open fire, served on (you guessed it) that quintessential bed of pap. It’s smoky and really very tasty too.

Third, there’s mielie, which is an ear of white maize roasted over an open fire. It’s street food, very simple, but one of my favourite things in the world.

I’ve yet to try one of the classic Swazi delicacies, which I understand is a rich stew of cow intestines. It may happen as a point of cultural culinary exchange, when I persuade my Swazi friends to try some of my jar of Vegemite.