What you didn't know about oluwombo

The year is 1887. Kabaka (king) Mwanga of Buganda is preparing to go for diner. A creative chef is about to make history.

Kawuuta, the king's chief cook, has just cooked a meal, the first of its kind in Buganda kingdom, oluwombo. A whole royal traditional meal wrapped in a banana leaf.

It could be beef, chicken, smoked fish, goat meat, ground nut sauce, mushrooms plus tomatoes, irish potatoes, chilli, salt and water in a luwombo.

That is called oluwombo, a dish that was a preserve of kings and princes in pre-colonial Buganda but today enjoyed by the rest of Uganda.

The business of oluwombo has spread throughout Uganda like fire in the dry savannah. Today, a meal that used to be enjoyed on special occasions like wedding parties, introduction ceremonies, festive seasons like Christmas, Easter, Eidd and graduation parties, is sold in big and small hotels alike because of its popularity.

I am talking of a meal that espouses uniqueness in its entirety. While all other types of sauce are cooked in a saucepan, oluwombo's banana leaf serves as a saucepan and at the same time a plate. In fact, Oluwombo experts say that it is best eaten in its originality. Only armatures can serve oluwombo on a plate.

Oluwombo is a word that causes many people in many communities in Uganda to salivate. The best done luwombo stew is defined by one four-letter word. Aroma. Its aroma is one of a kind. The oluwombo has a special taste that has never betrayed any first time diner. From Ugandans of any tribe to foreigners, all say they love it.

Culture blend

In Buganda, a young woman who is good at preparing oluwombo is revered by her peers and gets many suitors.

The merits of oluwombo are encountered in both folklore and present day pop culture. Stories are told of how Baganda men fail to choose between two beautiful women of good character, but where one woman is a luwombo expert and the other a romantic one.

And when it comes to the structure of Oluwombo, the traditional politics of Buganda come into play.

One young man even connected the Bible story to oluwombo. He said that, if Jesus Christ was to perform the legendary miracle of the twelve-year-old girl from Uganda, the scripture in Mark 5: 41 - 43 would have read: ‘He took her by the hand and said to her, ‘Talitha koum' (which means ‘Little girl, I say to you get up'. He gave them strict orders not to tell anyone about this and told them to give her some luwombo to eat'.

Preparations

Young women who know how to prepare oluwombo, will first smoke young banana leaves in a special way because it's the aroma derived from the smoked leaves that gives good oluwombo its uniqueness and great diners appreciate the smoked seasoned taste of the stew inside  the leaves. 

And these creative young women know it very well that to maintain its uniqueness, only few of the ingredients do not change, the only constants being the smoked leaves, salt and water. The rest of the ingredients change according to class and the size of one's wallet.

These young Baganda ladies who are oluwombo specialists have another secret. When the subject of the meal is meat, they will make sure that they ‘kukalirira' the meat, meaning to sort of grill it lightly. But this again is not done in the usual way. The charcoal on the stove is also covered by light banana peels, the idea here is to make sure that the heat remains under and the peels transport the charming smoked savor into the meat.

You will hear these ladies say that oluwombo imposters, the ‘educated women' who want to impress that they have not forgotten the culture, will first grill the meat in an oven and later wrap it in banana leaves which have also been heated in an oven. 

Nakiwala (the beautiful Muganda lady I interviewed about this story), with a laugh, says that the ‘educated women' simply think that the intention of smoking the banana leaves is to make them soft. Shame, she says, because this meat will not have the original luwombo taste and aroma which the luwombo lovers are looking for. That unique aroma is lost completely because it can never come from the oven.

Reason, Oluwombo taste is not only derived from the way the banana leaves are smoked, but also the way the meat is smoked and the type of the banana leaf. The banana leaf is specifically from ndiizi type of banana, and they are smoked over a specific flame from dry banana leaves and they must first become brown before they are removed from the fire. The imposters will miss these details and thereby miss everything.

How to make oluwombo

But how is it made? A non Muganda, reading this may ask? I am also a non Muganda writing this, but after having enjoyed one at a place called Nakiwogo Landing site at the shores of Lake Victoria in Entebbe, the journalist in me made sure that I had to find out all about this wonderful dish.

First of all you must buy young good banana leaves, select carefully only those without holes. Then carefully remove the central rib making sure that you do not tear the leaf. Then clean the leaf with a damp cloth and then fold the leaf into two.

By now you should have a clean container like a basket ready, place the above leaf in its centre. After that, cut a small part from another cleaned leaf and place it under the other fold. Now you are ready to bring your ingredients; meat, chopped up vegetables, salt, pepper and all others to your taste and then cover the meat. Other ingredients often used include, onions, green pepper, oatmeal, carrots, tomatoes, garlic, spices, black pepper, chilli etc.

You are now ready to tie up your luwombo, by holding the two sides of the folded leaf up and then collecting the side of leaves on both sides while making sure that none of the ingredients spills and then tie up your luwombo with a clean string, and usually it is the other central rib or midrib of the leaves you removed earlier.

So depending on the number of people in your household, you need to repeat the above exercise to make sure that you get the number you want. This is because very big mpombo (plural of luwombo) don't cook well and ladies say, it is better to have individualized mpombos for the best experience.

So after you finish tying them up, get a big saucepan (of course depending on the number), put some small chopped matooke stems or pieces of wood in it, make sure that you leave some space of not more than three inches to allow the mpombo to sit well and also the steam to move about freely as it cooks the dish. After some time, depending on your timing, your lip-smacking luwombo is ready. Enjoy.