Recipes and Food

Food is something I have not got my head around: I grew up wanting to be a hacker, a pure intelligence that lives on the net.

However, when I moved out on my own I realized that our emotions are tied to the food we eat (not to mention our energy levels). I survived well on relatively nutritious food that is served on the street-corners of Sudan, but when I was introduced to the relatively non-nutritious fast-food that they serve on the street-corners of the U.S.A., I realized that I could not afford to let other people cook for me all my life.

That finding pushed me further when I moved to Kenya and found a 'national' menu that seemed to consist of white bread and sugared tea (with milk) for breakfast, nothing for lunch, and Ugali (Corn-flour with water thickened to the point where you cut it with a knife) with a vegetable (Kale or Cabbage, often mixed with tomato and onion), and sometimes a protein (eggs fried and mixed in with the cabbage, small fish boiled and fried (Omena) for dinner. - There aren't enough green vegetables in that diet, and the breakfast is a recipe for diabetes.

So I want to focus on cooking, and involvement in a food culture that cooks not for pleasure (though that's a great side-effect), but for nutrition and economy. I'll list the recipes I come up with and hopefully engage in discussion on the nutritional and economic factors involved.

My goal is to find the cheapest healthy diet that I actually want to eat. At the same time, I want to continue weaning myself off the stuff that drives my reward centers towards unhealthy food.

- Josh Penman, 2010-06-25 2330h

Update 2010-09-26 2329h: Other things took priority at HISG Kenya, but more focus will come on nutrition at Intentional Engineering under the tutelage of Mairi Walker.