Dinner Cooked by a Volcano

On the island of São Miguel, in the Azores, there is a village called Furnas where the ground itself is alive with heat. Steam rises from holes in the soil, and the earth feels warm under your feet. This place sits on top of a volcano, and the people here have learned to make the volcano work for them in a delicious way.

Katika kisiwa cha São Miguel, huko Azores, kuna kijiji kiitwacho Furnas ambapo ardhi yenyewe ina uhai wa joto. Mvuke hupanda kutoka kwenye matundu ardhini, na ardhi inahisi joto chini ya miguu. Mahali hapa pamesimama juu ya volkano, na watu wa hapa wamejifunza kuifanya volkano iwafanyie kazi kwa njia tamu.

Early in the day, a cook fills a tall pot with meat, sausage, cabbage, and other vegetables. Then, wearing thick gloves, the cook lowers the covered pot into a hole dug in the hot ground and packs the soil back over it. There is no fire and no stove. The heat of the volcano alone will do the cooking, slowly and gently, for about seven hours.

Mapema mchana, mpishi hujaza chungu kirefu na nyama, soseji, kabichi, na mboga nyingine. Kisha, akiwa amevaa glavu nzito, mpishi hushusha chungu kilichofunikwa ndani ya shimo lililochimbwa ardhini penye joto na kufunika udongo juu yake tena. Hakuna moto wala jiko. Joto la volkano peke yake ndilo litakalopika chakula, polepole na kwa upole, kwa muda wa karibu saa saba.

When the pot is lifted out again, the food inside is soft and tender, full of flavour from the long, slow heat. The air carries a faint smell of sulfur from the steaming ground. Families and visitors gather at long tables, and steam curls up from their plates as they eat a meal that the earth itself prepared.

Chungu kinapoinuliwa tena, chakula ndani yake huwa laini, kikiwa na ladha nyingi kutokana na joto refu, la polepole. Hewani kunanuka harufu hafifu ya salfa kutoka ardhini penye mvuke. Familia na wageni hukusanyika kwenye meza ndefu, na mvuke hupanda juu kutoka sahani zao wanapokula chakula ambacho ardhi yenyewe iliandaa.