The staple meal in the Zulugirl household is mealie meal porridge.
There isn’t anyone in my house that can cook very well but everyone can make porridge perfectly. Porridge is our staple food because it is easy to make, quick and you can serve it in a million different ways. If we could serve porridge to the visitors best believe that we would but the visitors like tea and cake shame. They don’t know what they are missing.
Breakfast is the one meal that we all have together. It’s when most of the important decisions are made, over a plate of porridge. My dad never used to eat porridge. His staple food was a bottle of Coca-Cola. I think he started eating porridge just to be down with the fam. Which is really sweet. He wouldn’t touch the stuff otherwise like when we weren’t there.
The younger Zulugirls love their porridge looking a hot mess. They put sugar, margarine, powdered milk and cereal into it. The cereal is usually Cerevita, Pronutro or Grown Ups. Apparently it tastes great but it does not look it. When they add peanut butter to it, they usually add a dash of salt. This here is awesome. I’m allergic to peanut butter but when I’m down in the dumps, this is my go-to comfort food.
My mom’s porridge combination is lethal. I promise you, you can’t eat that stuff and function the same. This is the weekend special when you have no plans and no deadlines. She mixes her mealie porridge with amasi. Two tablespoons of amasi and sugar. And when she is feeling really good, she’ll even add fresh milk to the mix. Recipe for disaster. Everytime I eat this I get the itis. I laze around all day and sleep. Don’t try this before heading out to work.
Let’s move on to my personal favourite, sour porridge made from Botswana mabele mealie meal. I live for this stuff. So what you do is, mix mealie meal with water to make a paste. Pour the paste into a lunchbox and close it with the lid. Put the lunchbox in the sun for 2-3 days depending on your ‘hand.’ Apparently it sours differently with each hand. You gotta have the green thumb for it. When it begins to rot, sorry I meant ferment, then you cook it. Add sugar and serve.
I can eat porridge sunrise to sunset and never get sick of it. And when I am sick, I eat it with lemon to boost my immunity system and stuff.
