Tilapia and 5 Italians

So a few nights ago, while there was a group of Italian women staying at this guesthouse, I went out for dinner at a nearby restaurant with them and Elisa, another Italian who works here. As there haven’t been too many people around, I was glad for the invite, even though much of the conversation took place in Italian- just another cultural experience I told myself, and I like the company! Anyways, I was determined to try some more ethnic food here, and in my Swahili class I had learned how to ask for this type of food. Ugali (maize, they make it with a white maize powder like flour mixed into water- like instant mashed potatoes and it can get really stiff so it can be picked up with your fingers and dipped into whatever else you are eating it with), samaki ya kuchemsha (boiled fish, in this case Tilapia- another common fish around here is the Nile Perch- which is not at all indigenous but rather has served to take over many other fish in Lake Victoria) and Mboga (vegetables) seems fairly common so that is what I ordered. I was quite surprised when a big plate came my way, very full I might add, kind of looked like a platter, food for 3 days…Anyways this plate consisted of the vegetables and fish…the light was pretty dim so it took me a minute and I realized there was a whole fish on my plate, boiled to a point where touching it made it fall apart…and it was covered in the vegetables. I uncovered the fish, revealing its head, eyeball and tail. The whole fish was almost a foot long and five inches high. I decided this was not the night for me to take apart a fish. Thankfully one of the Italian women happily took over for me and I felt like a kid as she took the fish (it fell apart but we managed to get it all on another plate) and skinned and took the head tail and bones out of it for me. Fish head is a delicacy but I was far from eating it. Well it was a great meal, and I am determined next time to ‘peel’ and ‘disect’ my own fish, so as not to disappoint you, dad!