Bemba meal

As a sort of welcome back a Mazabuka friend invited us around to her house for a Bemba meal a few days after we had returned from Zanzibar. There are at least 16 major cultural groupings (but more than 72 different languages and dialects spoken) in Zambia. I reside in the Southern Province where Tonga is the dominant tribe or grouping. The Bemba tribe, which this friend Victoria originates from, is mainly from the northern and north eastern parts of the country. In contrast to the culinary delights of the fresh fish, seafood, fruit and juices of our holiday this was a different, more basic meal. It felt more African to me. We had nshima (a thick cooked porridge made from ground maize), liver, tomato relish, pounded groundnuts mashed with leaves, okra, beans, kapenta (sardine like and sized fish) and fried caterpillars (which taste more like charcoal that any insect). To drink Victoria had made Munkoyo, also brewed from maize, and when we had it was non-alcoholic; a few days left to ferment and it would have been very different.