Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Living cheap in Lusaka

So I think I may have finally figured out how to live cheap here! The bulk of my expenses now are on chocolate milk shakes, eating out, CAKES! and all these small snacks that i just cant resist especially on weekends.

So if you ever find yourself in Lusaka, then these may help you out:

1) Meat is expensive! Like reallly expensive and I never buy meat unless it's on sale and the good news is that meat often go on sale BUT i recently found out that the sales in the grocery stores here don't last even for a few days, it might only be just for that one day. So if you go to a store and find sausages, polony or bacon on sale; get it! And then just keep it and use it when you want to. I did that just a few days back, and now my lunch for the whole of October is settled, and I only spent slight less than RM 20 on it!

2) CAKES are expensive! The bakeries here trample over bakeries in Malaysia in a HEARTBEAT! Every single bakery I've been too has been awesome! The cookies and cakes and pies are all so fresh and tasty and truly home made. But the normal price for a cake in bakery would cost 20,000 K which is about 4 USD which is about RM12. Now that's a little too much for me. Recently, I've found that Pick N Pay, a supermarket all over Lusaka, kinda like the Giant in Malaysia sells big pieces of cakes as well in their bakery and for a fraction of the price which is 4,950 K which is slightly less than RM 3 and if you go at the right time; usually on weekdays at night; you would find these nice slices of chocolate cake with raspberry jam which are absolutely yummy! But every now and then if you wanted to go for pieces of cakes which are slightly more pricey with better variety then the bakery at Kabulonga Shopping Centre has tonnes of really amazing cakes and also Mint Cafe in Arcades Shopping Mall.

3) Milkshakes are like Milo here. Hardly any shop/cafe/restaurant sells hot chocolate or iced chocolate. Coffee is huge here. So anyway if you wanted something chocolatey; milkshakes are the way to go! I've been trying out milkshakes all over Lusaka to see which is the best. Now, I've been following the Lonely Planet's guide to discovering Lusaka in trying restaurants and cafes and also going to nice parks. It's been good so far; all the restaurants I've tried based on lonely planet has been nice and all the parks I've been to based on Lonely Planet has also been nice! But they got it wrong with the milkshakes! They suggested this small cafe in Arcades Shopping Mall called La Mimosa. I tried the milkshake there but not only was it expensive; 17,000 K but it was also so not chocolatey. The best milkshake so far in my opinion is the chocolate milkshake served at Sandy's Creation (a garden/park) for 15, 000 K. If you want something cheaper; then the milkshake at Steers (the McD of Zambia) is not too bad for 11, 000 K.

4) Chicken Shwarma's are the best bargain yet. These are like kebabs in these Lebanese bread kinda wraps but the nicest thing about this meal is that although it's cheap; it's soooo filling! They stuff it with cucumbers, tomatoes, celery, FRENCH FRIES, 3 different types of sauces and lots of grilled chicken meat (they are not selfish with the portions). The local restaurants sell this for 10, 000 K.

5) Always the biggest dilemma for me is when someone invites me to dinner around here. Sometimes I don't mind spending that minimum 50, 000 K on a meal just to try it out, but some days I want to save that money for something much better over the weekend. Now in Malaysia, mamaks are cheap. Well you should be able to assume that you don't get anything close to a mamak here, well at least not when another foreigner invites you out for dinner. You'd probably end up in a fancy foreigners-only restaurant where Indian food, Chinese food, Korean food and Zambian dishes are just so unreasonably priced. So the best thing to do is order Tea. It's so far the best value; only 6, 000 K and you get a whole pot, not just a glass as opposed to ordering coffee or Coke (which both costs more than tea). They usually serve this local brand called Five Roses tea with fresh milk and brown sugar, and it usually lasts me throughout the dinner.

6)  Veggies! Veggies are important. I need them anyway ever since I've been trying to cut down on my chicken meat, I've been trying to eat more vegetables. The only problem with vegetables are that they're harder to cook into tasting yummy, meat is easy! Also cause every month or so, my Korean doctor neighbours strangles a dog by the swing at the back of my apartment; in celebration of the month end I suppose but whatever the reason and however much I cant stand the thought of a poor dog suffocating to death and then being chopped up and grilled and eaten; that's not much worse or better in fact than the processed chicken meat we get from the store. At least they catch and kill their own meat. So with all of these reasons; veggies are now even more important!

Okay so, veggies are best bought straight from farms here which is totally amazing because it doesn't get any fresher than that. The best farm I've been to so far is Sugarbush Farm run by some white people. Their prices are very reasonable and they give you a whole big bag of each vege that you get. I bought from them once but it's really not practical if you're cooking for one so nowadays i buy veges from the other local markets around Lusaka. I just went for one called the Dutch Reformed Church Saturday Market that happens every last Saturday of the month. It's filled with veges, fruits, arts and crafts and glorious FOOD! I mostly sat down there and kept eating all kinds of things for the 2 hours, but on my way out I bought some fresh carrots, tomatoes and onions for a good price and they're fresh and they were sold by the locals!

Some other markets you can get fresh veges and spices are : Soweto Market, Tuesday Market and Thursday Market. It's like the pasar malam here just that they only sell stuff up to 6pm. This place goes dead at 6pm; after 6pm it's only the fancy foreigners that are out and about eating their fancy dinners at the fancy candle lit restaurants.

It's good to support the locals, so veges and fruits and all you could even buy them from the roadside vendors that sell pretty nice and fresh stuff if you spent some time looking.

7) Nshima (pronounced sheema) ! I can't stand beef, and I don't need to get hooked on another meat thank you very much but living here completely not eating beef is going to be a challenge so I've eaten my share of beef here. They seem to find requests of changing the beef to chicken somewhat rather strange. So anyway, the local cuisine here is Nshima. Now it's really not all that awesome; it's just a softer version of Idli and then they eat it with beef stew and some vegetable relish. If you need to try this, Pick N Pay sells it at a very cheap price (8,000 K). The portion is not that big but hey for a taste it would suffice. Now. for the real deal; I've found this awesome place nearby my place that has a Nshima buffet. They open every weekday from 1230 to 230pm but the food is usually only ready at about 130pm. It will cost you 30, 000 K but you get three scoops of Nshima (too much for me!) and then you get to choose your veges and from three different main dishes (village chicken, beef stew and fish). It's called Heritage Trails and it has my name written on it one of these days for lunch!

That's about all the cheap things I've discovered here. My hunt will continue for cheaper cheaper things!