Chef Giorgio

Italian cooking is one of George's hobbies. Working in the kitchen gives him opportunity to create some delicious meals, but it has been a challenge to find some ingredients.  For example, until now, we have been unable to find a variety of cheeses. A few days ago, George decided to bake eggplant parmesan, and we had all of the ingredients except the mozzarella.   

 

We looked in Shoprite and Metro. From time to time these stores have blocks of cheddar or gouda cheese, but they go fast when they are available.  There is no variety here. What does a good chef do when the ingredients he needs are not available? He creates a new recipe with the ingredients he has.  George was able to find a block of gouda and decided to try eggplant gouda. It was delicious.

 

A friend recommended a little restaurant here in Zomba called Casa Rossa. We didm't know that an authentic Italian restaurant existed here. An Italian restaurant has a variety of cheese, right?    We decided to check it out last Sunday afternoon.Their food is  good, but very expensive. Perhaps we could go again on a very special occasion. The owner, an Italian immigrant to Malawi, was friendly enough, so George asked where he gets his cheese. We were surprised by the answer.

 

As it turned out, Catholics are the major Christian religion in Malawi, and many of them live in the Balaka region.  We traveled through there when we were on our return trip from Nkhata Bay. There is an enormous Catholic church there as well as well as Catholic schools and  an orphanage. There are also many Italian immigrants who live in Balaka. Some of them produce and market cheese.  Cheese is delivered to Zomba from time to time. We look forward to being on the list for deliveries. Just think of all the delicious Italian meals we can make. It will taste like home.