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Stone Town, Spice Tours, Beaches & Excursions

Zanzibar

Tony Clemens
2005-08-31 21:53:07

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One of the many reasons to travel is to experience the cuisine of the countries you visit. There is a reason why you don't find Tanzanian restaurants outside Tanzania. Most of the meals seem to consist of barbecued meat, vegetarians beware, and a bland, but filling, corn meal called ugali. Usually the best restaurants in Tanzania are Indian, most large towns will have at least one. You still get barbecued meat and ugali but in an Indian restaurant its generally served with a sauce and if your willing to spend a few more shillings you can get mashed plantains or even rice. On Zanzibar there is some sort of culinary tradition of Swahili cooking which is a mixture of African, Arab, and East Indian cuisine, its pretty good plus there is plenty of seafood.

The cheapest, and probably the best place, to eat in Stone Town is called the Jamituri Gardens which is an open air market in front of the fort that starts with the sunset. Health experts might cringe at the sight of all those open air booths but the food is cooked in front of you and it seems popular with both locals and travelers. Most food items like barbecued kebabs of various types of meat or fish will cost about 400 shillings (1 US dollar = about 700 shillings), deep-fried plantains about 200 shillings and fresh boiled lobster can be had for only 1000 shillings, I had three. We encounter the Ugly American again as he closely supervised the preparation of his and his' wife food as she dutiful sat watching. Fresh squeezed fruit juices, sugar cane juice, spiced ice cream and yogurt are also available usually around 100 shillings. These foods especially are the foods that health officials warn you about so you have to judge for yourself. Generally I figure once you have been in a country for a couple of weeks your system is use to the local fauna of bacteria, of course that is just my opinion since I still only use bottle water. ...