Talk:Malawian Cuisine

Several names of foods used on this page need to be made consistent with local names and terms used in Malawi. Examples include:

Nshima: this may be the correct spelling for Zambia, for Malawi the correct spelling is "nsima". Other questionable terms are: foutou, fufu,

Curried chambo is not made from fillets nor is flour commonly used. Chambo is commonly cooked with bones in. It is cut into pieces and steamed/boiled and spices added, or fried in oil before being made into a curry to enhance taste and/or reduce flaking.

Vegetables use ground peanuts not peannut butter. Ground nuts are ground in a mortar and added to many dishes in Malawi. It is called thendero. Used in other dishes such as futali (sweet potato dish).

Vermicelli a traditional dish? I think not.

Anyway, this whole page could benefit from a careful edit by an expert from Malawi. Use of correct terms/names would greatly improve readability. There are many common but unique dishes - many fish types (fresh and dry), vegetables - bonongwe, etc.

Even the nsima itself, it is made from several types of flour - (a) white (nsima yoyera), made from maize flour processed to remove the outer skins on the maize kernels using a mortar (mtondo), soaked for 3 days, dried, ground using a maize mill. (b) n'gaiwa - flour made by simply milling maize (brownish and has a coarse feel to it. (c) sometimes when maize is scarce, the flour can be made from rice or cassava.

I will dig up some photos of Malawian cuise and provide a link to them later. Cheers.

I take issue with the claims that a) nsima has a high caloric value, b) it leads to weight gain, and c) that Malawian women are "sedentary" and thus gain more weight. In fact, nsima is not highly caloric at all, especially considering how quickly it fills your stomach - it's just corn and water, for goodness' sake.  Secondly, I'm quite sure than even an all-nsima diet would not lead anyone to gain weight, no matter how sedentary, for the same reason.  Lastly, Malawian women are nothing resembling sedentary!  They frequently perform the bulk of the manual labor around the home and in the field, and malnourishment is far more of a problem than weight gain.Mt265 08:18, 18 April 2009 (UTC)