Going back to our traditional foods

Kenyans have realized that traditional foods of olden days are safe and healthy. You may recall the many traditional vegetables (mitoo, mirenda, apoth, terere, kunde, susa, atipa etc) coming in all sorts of indigenous names. I can’t tell the names in English or agricultural names but they were there in plenty. These vegetables were medicinal and healthy. Allow me to talk about few luo dishes that I can remember
Aruda
I remember during those good old days when my mother (my God rest her soul) could prepare the yam`s leaves and mix it with smashed groundnuts (aruda). It was a sweet meal taken with potatoes or cassavas.
Aluru
Think of those biblical little birds that God fed the Israelites with (we call them aluru) . They were plenty in those old days and the small meat out of them were just too sweet. The recipe can still be found in some hotels in Kenya but very expensively.
Obwolo
These were the traditional mushrooms grown from ant/termites hills. They were real, sweet and natural. I am not talking about the processed ones in the supermarkets nowadays or the ones grown under green houses. The Obwolo went well with mid brown ugali. My mum used to add sour milk (chak ma wach) and it was excellent.
Aliya
This was dried meat (normally game meat). The meat was dried for some days in the sun (not by firs as others do it now). The dried meat was then well cooked and accompanied with brown or white ugali. It was a great meal.
Moo Alenya
Those old days we used to get solidified animal fat from shacking the milk in a gourd (koo).The solidified milk was then melted into sweet liquid (soup) taken with ugali or potatoes or added on dried fish or vegetables.

Post by W. Orwa

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