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Staples: Rice, maize, goat, chicken, mutton,
curries, fish,octopus, sugar cane and tea
Tastes: Zanzibar is the island of spice, everything
is pepped up with ginger, cloves, chilli and hot tastes
Dining Suggestion: Why not try a hot octopus
curry with pilau rice followed by a refreshing spicy
ice cream?
Best dish: try the nightly food market in Zanzibar
Town, opposite the Old Fort
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Ian wright gets tucked into a plate of Pilau rice
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Pilau rice
The pilau rice cooking technique is found throughout the
Middle East and West Asia and was spread through Africa by
the Arabs and later brought to America by the slaves. Traditionally
it is rice, vegetable and meat cooked in a seasoned broth.
To make Pilau rice Tanzanian style, boil a spicy stock mixture
of pepper, cumin, cloves, cinnamon, cardamon, garlic and ginger
with staples of meat, mixed vegetables or dried fruit. Cook
with meat on the bone to impart even more flavor to the rice.
Bring a touch of east Africa to your kitchen by adding thinly
sliced coconut or coconut flakes and green bananas. Don't
worry, these unripe bananas aren't sweet at all. In fact,
they taste a bit like potatoes.
Graze to your heart's content
At the nightly food stalls at Jamituru (also known
as Forodhani Gardens) in Zanzibar Town, you can eat
your way around the Indian sub-continent, the Middle East
and even Zanzibar. Meateaters, seafood-lovers and vegetarians
alike are all catered for.
Zanzibar pizza
Zanzibar pizza is the local specialty. These are small dough
discs cooked quickly on brazier with onions, egg and chillis
added. Totally unlike an Italian pizza, it makes a delicious
and different treat.
Cassava
A close relative of the potato, cassava is cooked in its
skin to retain its moisture and is topped with a squeeze of
lemon and a dusting of chilli powder. Jacket potatoes never
tasted this good. Unlike the humble spud, the tough yucca
skin isn't edible.
Indian and Arab influences
Try an Indian kachori, a spicy crushed pea fritter, plus
a skewer of tuna or mutton kebab. Wash it all down with sugar
cane juice complete with a twist of Zanzibari lemon and the
invigorating tang of ginger.
Spicy ice cream
If you have got any room left for dessert, check out the
local fayre of ice cream. It's no ordinary ice-cream - chocolate
and vanilla are not on the menu in Zanzibar. Being the Spice
Islands this means cloves, lemon grass and ginger, the spicier
the better.
Exotic fruits & spices
For less than the price of a soda, quench your thirst with
a juicy coconut in Dar es Salaam or Zanzibar. Be sure to sample
jackfruit as part of a visit to Zanzibari spice plantation.
Jackfruit is like a superior smoothie with overtones of pineapple,
peach and banana.
On the tour, the fragrance of cinnamon, saffron, cloves, nutmeg,
and cardamon wafts on the breeze. If you like it hot you've
come to the right place. You may also pass trees with prickly
durians. If you don't see durians, you're sure to smell their
open sewer aroma. Sweet, sour and with even a hint of saltiness
all at the same time, the flesh has a creamy texture. Eat
them if you dare!
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