Rugomora Mutwe/ empaate/ ekicuumbe/ omugoyo. The cake of those days! Children of these days will need to find this in the museum.
Embiire, enkeiga and entondore
Before a lot of genetic mixing came, there were broadly two types of ebitookye in the Kigezi region, namely:enyamwonyo and embiire.
The nyamwonyos were generally for cooking, while the mbiire were for making rwaarwa, tonto or omutahe or the real end product: manyinya--embandure.
There was another subcategory of bananas in between for eminekye--yellow bananas.
These included kabaragara and musa.
In the nyamwonyo category, you had the likes of kibuzigye, enjagata or mbwazirume.
While embiire was generally for alcohol making, there were times when people would be forced to cook embiire.
Normally this would be in times of famine and hunger, like the famous enjara rwaranda rukuura mahega. But embiire could also be cooked out of choice.
The best mbiire meal would be the one of mixing it with enkeiga and young beans known as entondore.. Enkeiga is the equivalent of the French beans--the young shoots that you cook without removing the cotyledons from the pods. Instead of depoding, we would simply kushushura enkeiga by removing the pointed tip of the pod, together with the threadlike lining that goes along the pod, down to the stalk.
If they were too long, you would break them into two or three nkeigas.
The best nkeigas would come from kabweseri or kankurye mbaruke types of beans. Kahuura type wasn't good for this as it's pods are normally hard.
In the meantime, the mbiire bananas would have been peeled and ready for cooking. However, to remove the sour tinge that rolls off the tongue from embiire, we would first wash the peeled bananas in warm water, twice - - before putting it in the saucepan to cook.
The nkeigas, together with entondore would also be cooked alongside the mbiire in the same pan or pot. The best product would be when you had an equal amount of of beans and enkeiga and slightly more mbiire.
On getting ready, of course salt would have been added in the mix--the person cooking would kucugusa--an art and science of shaking the saucepan containing the delicacy in a particular fashion and rhythm to allow for an even mixing of entondore, enkeiga and embiire.
I must tell you that not any Tom, dick, joyce and John could kucugusa the mixture properly. The chest, the arms and the bum have to be positioned at a certain angle to obtain the right mix and move.
After that, a mingling stick, not orwiiko, but akashoteso would be used to mash and mix--kushota-- the mix into a fine produce omubumba-like product known as embiire egoyire,Ekichumbe,ekyegoye ,empaate etc It might have a specific name among some Bakiga.
That would be the meal. Small slices of it would be put on the plate for the entire family to enjoy. The best meal of this though would be the left over - amahoro gembiire, taken the following morning accompanied by chai mukaru, with omujaaja and omuteete. It would be the most tasty cold power meal you would ever have.
Banyankore proverbial Rwongyereramaganya. Kwongyerera amaganya means adding grief to an already grievous situation. This man Rwongyereramaganya akareta empate omurufu rwa ishezara meaning he brought the bitter matoke on the funeral of his father in law. Ordinarily the bitter type that is grown for bear brewing is eaten only in famine times. To bring it to be eaten at the funeral of your father in law is to add on to grief in the clan.
ReplyDeleteEmbiire is still eaten although it was commonly used for making beer. I believe this was because there were so many other food but fewer ingredients for making beer. It was known that thirst rather than hunger may have been the stimulus behind the origin of growing embiire as well as some small grains such as sorghum in Africa. Beer was and still should be a centre peace in society building in Africa.
ReplyDeleteWe believe that the foundations of Western Civilization that criticised beer in Africa were laid by an ill-fed people living in a perpetual state of partial intoxication
The role beer plays in contemporary indigenous societies throughout the world is of great paramount. We find that beer is an essential staple for many communities, often considered a food rather than a beverage. Importantly, the consumption of beer adds considerably to daily caloric intake. It has more protein, vitamins and minerals than unleavened bread, and the low alcohol content kills bacteria that may be present in the unprocessed water.
For other roles of beer in society building visit our website at https://kitararcc.com/beer-in-africa/