The traditional Tanzanian diet consists of ugali ("stiff porridge" made from maize flour), beans, rice, greens, and meat (usually chicken or goat). Nyama choma which is basically barbecued meat is really popular and I really enjoy going out to get barbecued chicken, beef, or goat. Other popular foods are chipati, somosas, cassava, sweet potatoes, and chips (french fries). The flavors are very influenced by international cuisine, especially India and China! Anywhere you go you can get curry vegetables. Another local dish is banana stew-- which is exactly what it sounds like: bananas and beef. The bananas are not the sweet kind so they turn out to have more of the consistency and taste of potatoes. There are also many types of fresh fruits available such as oranges, pineapples, guavas, passion fruits, bananas, melons, and mangos.
Arusha has A LOT of restaurants. So far I have been to a Chinese restaurant, a Middle Eastern "inspired" restaurant, a hamburger joint, an Italian bistro, and many other types of cafe type places. There are also SO MANY Indian food restaurants, but I'm not a huge fan of Indian food so I tend to stay away. I ate at the best sandwich shop in Arusha. I ate there several weeks ago and when I was thinking about what I was going to eat for lunch today I got an incredibly strong craving for this seemingly disgusting sandwich from this shop. The sandwich is salami, cream cheese, lettuce, tomato, and mayonnaise. Somehow the spicy salami and the cream cheese come together to make a rich combination of flavors that is really satisfying. A few hours later, after walking for a little too long in the mid day heat, I got another really strong craving for chips which just happened to coincide with going to the ATM and passing this little stand on the street that supposedly has the best fries. I got them "take away" and took a bite of one of the fries from the bag and IMMEDIATELY regretted getting chili sauce! It was so spicy my nose started running and my eyes were tearing!
Being in Tanzania has given me a chance to try some new food and taste some new combinations of food. Nevertheless, I am very excited to get back to the United States so I can have Mexican food and good pizza.
ooh, question- bananas, or plantains? Ghanaians were very firm about the difference between the two. haha... plantains are a lot more like potatoes, yep- plantain chips are actually pretty common in West Africa, or cooked and served with beans, or spiced and fried, etc. excellent stuff. :) ...the bananas, though, were much smaller than the ones we have in the US, and more packed with flavor- same of Tanzanian bananas, I wonder?
ReplyDeleteThere definitely different types of "bananas" and they have the different names for them in Swahili but when I buy them, its all "ndizi" (Swahili word for banana). There are large bananas here that are sweet like the bananas in the US while small bananas are pretty bland! I never knew there were so many types of bananas!! In one part of Tanzania (near Lake Manyara) there are RED bananas!!!
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