Sunday, August 24, 2014

street eats in Zanzibar

I love food so this post is just about food.

My general impression of street food in East Africa is that Kenya has terrible/no street food game, Uganda has delicious rolex (chapatti with egg and tomato) going for it and Zanzibar... Zanzibar knows what it's doing. Street food in Zanzibar is cheap, delicious, everywhere.


One Zanzibar classic is urojo soup, which consists of a mango and ginger broth with your choice of add-ins, like potatoes, potato/flour balls, cassava chips, and meat. Only 1000tsh ($0.65).


At night, Stone Town's Forodhani Gardens by the port becomes a giant, vibrant street food market. There are dozens of vendors, all selling one of three things: 1) Zanzibar staple Zanzibar pizza, 2) meat and seafood skewers with naan, 3) sugarcane juice. The gardens attract about a 80/20 tourist/locals mix, and the prices match that reality. With that said, everything is up for negotiation.

Zanzibar pizza stand
Zanzibar pizza is a small piece of dough is rolled out real thin, and fried with on the pan with egg and toppings of your choice, sweet or savoury. I must admit that I finished mine before examining it too hard because I was very hungry. The place was way too touristy for me and I didn't have the patience to take many pictures before leaving (though, the food was delicious).

Forodhani gardens 
Skewers of beef, chicken, tuna, lobster, rockfish, barracuda, red snapper are all available! As are naan, garlic naan, coconut bread, and samosas. Yum yum. The prices at Forodhani are about 2-3x higher than what you would pay at other stalls (during the day).

Chicken biryani, with tamarind juice. All for just 6000 ksh ($4).
One of the best meals I had, probably all summer, was this chicken biryani from a local joint called Passing Show. Zanzibar cuisine, even more so than East African cuisine more generally, has a very strong Indian influence. Chapattis, pilau, biryani, naan, and samosas are all common foods.

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