Angola - Menu and Overview

This is meal number 6 on my family's challenge to cook around the world.  It's back to Africa with Angola.  I have a feeling that African food is going to become our favorite.  For more about Angola, read my overview.

Menu:

Papaya and Lime Salad

Muamba De Galinha (Chicken Stew in Palm Oil)
Fumbwa
Baton de Manioc (Manioc Sticks)
Funge
Pineapple Cake


There is a hot sauce called Piri Piri, which is also known of as African Bird's Eye Chili.  Piri is the Swahili word for pepper.  We bought some from Whole Foods, but you can also find it on Amazon. Some people make it with habeneros, but I think that the taste would be too different.

Papaya and Lime Salad
If I had to do this again, I'd skip the port and just eat the papaya by itself.  That's how the baby ate it (obviously) and he loved it.  This wasn't his first time eating papaya and he seemed to recognize it.

Muamba De Galinha (Chicken Stew in Palm Oil)

The main for the day was a hit.  I'd cooked with all the ingredients in the past.  I have already been asked to make it again.  I don't often marinate chicken but I should more.  It was super tender.  This was pretty similar to dishes that I've made in the past.  This was Zander's first try of okra and he seemed to really enjoy it.

Fumbwa
Recipes like this make me realize how much African food and southern food can be alike.  I literally made almost this exact same dish last week.  It just didn't have peanut butter.  The peanut butter was awesome.  This was the only dish that got requests for seconds.  Although it was probably because the chicken was hard to be small seconds.

This was Zander's first attempt at peanuts and we can now safely say that he has no peanut allergy.  I think that he liked this the best, but only partially because of the taste.  He loved the way that the gooey kale felt in his hands.

Baton de Manioc (Manioc Sticks)
This as a ton of work and for very little benefit.  It wasn't bad, but it wasn't that great.  I preferred the fufu as a starch.  I will say that it was fun to try something so different since the chicken and greens dishes weren't too far from my comfort zone.

Funge
Manioc/Cavassa/Tapioca Funge/Fufu is a starchy pudding with a consistency that reminds me of gak from back in the day.  It wasn't terribly flavorful, but did go with the Fumbwa really well.

Pineapple Cake
Dry, but refreshing this ended our meal perfectly.  When asked to describe the cake all Pete could say was "delicious" and I'd have to agree.  He ate some of the leftovers the next day as his breakfast claiming that it was a little like cinnamon coffee cake without the cinnamon.