From America to New Zealand with a Tanzanian Twist!: Yummy Yummy in my Tummy!

Over the past couple of days I have become a semi-proficient cook! Well, maybe not by all of your standards, but let me tell you about it...

We have some Arab friends who live in the town about an hour away from our house. They are always spoiling us with their delicious meals when we stop by at their house and one time my dad dropped in when they were having some wonderful goat meat. He came home and raved about how good it was to my mom and I heard about it when I came and so we decided that (since goat is my favorite anyway) we would ask them to teach us their tricks on how to cook the goat meat in that yummy way.

Now some of you might think, "just go make a marinade and soak it before you cook it." but it isn't quite that simple. Let me explain. Well, I'll tell you about part that I wasn't there for because it was a 3 day process, but I'll also show you pictures of parts of it...

Tuesday: Kill 4 goats. I mean, if you're going to go to all the trouble you might as well make it worth while! (We currently have a fridge FULL of meat! - and we thought it would be one goat...hah...they always go over and above!)

Wednesday: Now that the blood has drained out of the meat it is time to prepare it. They have already separated the meat from the intestines and all that good stuff, so in the big pot is only the meat (still on the bones of course) from the 4 goats...and their heads. In another pot they mix a bunch of different spices, salt, pepper, garlic, cinnamon, tamarind, caraway, and more. Once that was all stirred together it was time to put the meat in. Each piece was dipped into the sauce and had the sauce rubbed into it. Then it was put in tinfoil (or you can use banana leaves if you have them) and placed into a basket. The basket must soak in water for 12 hours prior to cooking. This is done with each piece which takes a while with 4 goats and fills up 3 baskets full of meat. If you are using tinfoil you have to poke it with holes so the steam can go through (with banana leaves you can skip that step). Once you've juiced up all the meat and the baskets are full you tie them shut with wire. Then you place them in a whole about 6 feet deep and 3 feet wide that has fire in the bottom. You set the full baskets of meat right on top of the fire and then put a piece of metal over the top and burry it to seal off all of the air.

Thursday: After 24 hours you unburry the baskets and pull them out by the wire. The meat inside is fully cooked and delicious. My dad went to get it from their house and brought home a ton of it! One of the men made sure to tell my dad that the head was for me (apparently the brains are delicious!) We haven't cracked into the brains yet, but I did taste the cheeks and they were good! Haha...Pictures are at the end just in case you guys didn't want to look. But I'm telling you..it's yummy!