ABSTRACT
Cooking in the bush, while crossing the vast uninhabited areas so common in Madagascar, or during seasonal work away from any village, requires no water or fat, and may even dispense with any containers. It is not quite the same as the method of the few true nomads still to be found in Madagascar, although it derives from it. Rather it is a technique for preparing snacks for long journeys on foot or by canoe - a common enough occurrence in a country with little public transport. Ideally, men eat only at home, or at least in conditions where nothing is left to chance. However, if one has to feed oneself for a day or two away from home, and with no acquaintances or inns to hand, one will equip oneself with meats, tubers, salt and pimento and take snatched meals of meat barbecued over a wood fire, or placed directly on the charcoal (saly, iono)> or perhaps grilled on skewers (tsatsika), and of various tubers (manioc, yams or sweet potatoes) baked in the ashes. In season, ears of maize, still in their leaves, may be grilled. On such occasions one may also carry a little smoked or dried fish or meat (kitoza, hahy)> preserved with the techniques used by herdsmen, hunters and fishermen.
