The Corn Crops in Tanzania are one of the most common sights that you will see during the growing season. Everyone, Everywhere, is growing corn. The most popular way that corn is eaten is through Ugali. The dry corn seed is ground into a corn meal, and then cooked into a hard dough and eaten in the form of Ugali.
Another popular way to eat the corn is is by roasting the corn on the cob. Here are some pictures of a man roasting corn on the roadside. Even after many years of living in Tanzania, I was hesitant to eat corn in this way. I wasn't afraid of the taste but of getting sick. You see this corn is usually always cooked on the side of the road so that the people walking by will have easy access in buying it. If you stand along side a road in Tanzania, you will probably soon be covered with dust, and vehicle exhaust fumes. During the dry season you can see the dust fly up in the air and then land on everything... including the corn roasting along the roadside. Regardless of this fact, I have been curious of what this corn taste like. One day a friend gave us some of the roasted corn. Out of politeness, I put the vision of dust and smoke out of my head and took a bite. To my surprise it was really bad at all. It didn't have a dirt or smoke taste at all. I was pretty bland, hard and crunchy. It tasted nothing like the soft, sweet, taste of corn on cob in America. The kids quickly wanted some, and They Loved It. It is funny what you get use to after living here for a while. Not long after this experience I found myself driving by a roadside corn stand and I was wanting to stop and get some. I thought to myself, "It is hard, bland, and probably dirty, Why are wanting to eat that?" And then I actually answered myself. (Yes, I know, kind of scary that I not only talk to myself, but answer myself) Anyways, I thought,"Well, because it is good, and I like it." Soooo the kids and I pulled the car over and I bought everyone some roadside roasted corn...And it was Good regardless of what I told myself.
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