When someone talks about tourism, most people think of touring far places. However, tourism also involves trying new dishes from different places. Due to the fact that I personally love tasting new things in life, I decided to learn how to prepare “Malewa”, edible bamboo shoots for the Bagisu of Eastern Uganda.
Interacting with people will always add to your knowledge as I learnt that bamboo shoots are also known as Kamaleya. The shoots are obtained from Mount Elgon in Bududa district, found along Uganda’s border with Kenya. It’s a traditional Ugandan dish prepared using bamboo shoots.
Origin
According to John Masaba, one of the elders I interacted with while in Mbale, Malewa was discovered during the Mt. Elgon clashes in the 16th and 17th centuries. He said that few migrants who came from South Africa sought refuge in the caves of mountain Elgon. In search of food for survival, they discovered the young bamboo shoots and realized they were edible.
How to prepare Malewa
The green bamboo shoots can be cooked fresh, however, most people prefer it smoked where the bamboo shoots are smoked on firewood, which help to preserve them for up to a year and give them a lovely smell.
When I say this was the best part of the experience, you may not believe, but direct involvement in an activity will leave a lasting memory in your brain. With guidance from my humble host, Susan Nagudi, we started the cooking with ingredients which include, water, smoked bamboo fiber, ground nuts and soda ash for seasoning the sauce.
We boiled the bamboo fiber (brown in color)for 30 minutes before cleaning it because this helps to remove the smoke and dirt.
I gladly offered to drain all the water which was the next step as guided by Nagudi, placed the malewa on a chopping board and cut off the hard joints of the bamboo. We then threw away the hard joints and retained the soft middle part. After, we divided the soft parts into smaller malewa pieces, washed them thoroughly and repeatedly until the water remained clear.
While I worked on washing the shoots, Nagudi processed soda ash in order to get the extract which is used for seasoning the bamboo. The amount of soda ash extract determines the taste of the sauce.
We added the clean edible bamboo pieces to water containing soda ash extracts and boiled for 30 minutes before we added ground nut paste. The content was boiled further to allow the ground nut paste to get ready.
Malewa was then ready to be served. From the start, I was skeptical of how it would taste, but I discovered that this was one of the best dishes I have ever tasted and would gladly do it again. The malewa bamboo shoots have a taste similar to that of forest mushrooms.
It is served in restaurants, hotels and rarely misses on party menus in Bugisu.
Malewa can be enjoyed with Posho, Matooke (smashed bananas), sweet potatoes or cassava. Personally the left me licking my fingers after I ate it with sweet potatoes.
Please make sure to try this mouthwatering meal if you ever visit Eastern Uganda.
