| Zanzibar gastronomy ((sw)Kupika toka Zanzibar) | |
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| Spicy coffee with popcorn | |
| Information | |
| Country |  Tanzania |
|---|---|
| Region | Zanzibar Archipelago |
| Unmissable | * mchuzi wa pweza * urojo * maji ya muwa |
| Location | |
 5 ° 28 ′ 26 ″ S 37 ° 40 ′ 26 ″ E | |
The Zanzibar gastronomy has some table specialties. Some are common to much of theEast Africa and from the swahili culture. Others, sometimes strange, are specific to theZanzibar archipelago or even at a well-defined place in this archipelago.
Ready meals
- Pilao (Pilau) – Rice pilaf or rice, meat (or fish) and spices are cooked together.
- Biriani (Biryani) – Quite similar to pilao but much spicier and the rice is cooked separately from the meat or fish.
- Boko-boko (Harees) – A kind of porridge made from crushed wheat, meat and spices.
- Octopus in sauce (mchuzi wa pweza) – Slices of octopus cooked in a blend of rich spices such as turmeric, cilantro, then simmered in a coconut cream sauce. Typical of Unguja Island, you will find this dish in hotel restaurants as well as in street ones as well as in the Forodhani park in Zanzibar City. Octopuses generally come from the eastern coast of the island where they are hand-fished at low tide while trapped in water holes.
- Cassava octopus (muhogo wa pweza) – Specific to street restaurants, these are small diced octopus and fried cassava root. Everything is served, at worst, on a sheet of newspaper or, at best, on a paper plate and accompanied by a squirt of hot pili-pili sauce.
- Mixed from Zanzibar (Urojo)
± 2 000 TZS. – Mix of potatoes, chickpeas, bhajia, of kachori (crushed and spiced potato balls before being fried like a donut), all bathed in a curry chutney and topped with a handful of fried cassava root sticks and garnished with a spicy pili sauce. pili. - Mishkaki – Large skewer of meat (beef or chicken), which has previously been marinated, and cooked over a charcoal fire.
- Zanzibar Pizza (Zanzibar Pizza) ± 2 000 TZS. – Small ball of dough thinned like a fried pancake on a hot surface on which are added the requested ingredients (chicken, beef, fish) plus a mixture of peppers and onions as well as an egg which is poured in the middle. The final touch before closing the pancake and baking it is to add mayonnaise and melted cheese. You will find this dish more specifically on the Forodhani park market in Zanzibar City
- Samusa (Sambosa) – Corn puff forming a triangular donut, stuffed with meat or vegetables and fried.
- French fries omelet (Mayai chips) – Sliced or fried potato sticks in a pan with eggs to form an omelet. This omelet is most often accompanied by kachumbari.
± 
- Kachumbari – Mix of tomatoes cut into small cubes and finely chopped onions all drizzled with lemon juice, a more or less spicy sauce and flavored with fresh coriander
Bakery, desserts, cookies, sweets
- Sesame bread (mkate wa ufuta) – A kind of very thick pancake composed of flour, yeast, coconut milk, sesame and cardamom which is cooked in a pan with a little oil on a fire or a grill. Traditionally, Zanzibarites reserve a pan only for baking this bread.
- Date and hazelnut bread – Prepared with hazelnuts, dates, eggs and vanilla, this bread is traditionally eaten at the end of Ramadan.
- Cake For Spices – Muffin flavored with cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and chocolate.
- Mandazi – Fried wheat flour fritters to eat as a snack or with a cup of tea or coffee.
- Vitumba – Fried rice flour mixed with coconut milk to eat as a snack or with a cup of tea or coffee.
- Kashata – Small snack between the candy and the cookie, it is composed of peanuts and crushed coconut and cooked on a stove or a fire and not in an oven.
Fruits
Do not hesitate to taste all the tropical fruits and especially pineapple, bananas, durian (only from April to August) and the lychee which are produced on the archipelago. But, before tasting them, don't forget to either wash them or peel them.
Drinks
Above all, you must not leave the archipelago without having tasted the drinks made from fresh fruits picked of the day, whether it is a simple fruit juice, a smoothie or a cocktail, alcoholic or not. Do not hesitate to enjoy a fresh cane juice (maji ya muwa in swahili) for 1 000 TZS the glass or drink, through a straw, coconut water (maji ya nazi in Swahili) directly into the nut.
Another experience is black Ethiopian arabica coffee, without milk or sugar, cooked in water with the addition of fresh cinnamon, cardamom and ginger. You will find it everywhere on the archipelago but the best is certainly that of the Jaws Corner in Zanzibar City.
Always insist that all beverages, such as water, soft drinks such as soda, or beer, arrive in their original closed containers. Outside hotels and places of consumption for tourists, avoid ice cubes.
Never forget that the archipelago is populated almost 97% by Muslims and that it is very frowned upon to consume an alcoholic drink in the street or in a public place (even a beach) not specially reserved and duly informed for this effect. Drunkenness on the public highway is also severely reprimanded and can earn you a passage through the "prison box".
