Chakula cha Tanzania (Tanzanian Food)

First of all, I’ve been doing pretty well for the past couple of days here in Dar. We have a rough internet connection (and this is supposed to be pretty good for Tanzanian standard) here at the volunteer dormitory but things are good so far.

So, here’s the story of my first encounter with the Tanzanian food.

Muslims make up a significant minority in Tanzania especially on the Indian coast. (I'm really excited to experience pieces of the Islamic culture here during my service by the way) Hence they had Ramadan in during the last month and the day we arrived marked the last day of it. This delayed our introduction into the local Tanzanian life for the first two days because most of the local shops and restaurants were closed for the Islamic holiday with the city center and dala dala (a form of popular public transportation) much less crowded than they would be on regular days.
We had to get started on our orientations in downtown office though. So what we had eaten during these two days for lunch were Subway (yes, they do have Subways over here) and at an Italian restaurant which were open for the tourists. Both of them were ridiculously expensive (you have to pay the same price in Tanzanian Shillings you would pay for a sandwich for a meal of pasta back in the West/Japan).

So yesterday, we were very happy to finally have a slice of the local life.

Some people went to an area in downtown called Kariakoo which is a vibrant local market place also famous for frequent pickpockets.
I and two others decided to hang around in our neighborhood and went to this moderately priced local restaurant for chakula cha Tanzania. I was told, by my Kiswahili teacher during the training in Japan, about a lot of good things about the Tanzanian food and it didn’t take much to confirm what she said. The food here is amazingly good! I had a plate of beef pilau (a rice dish cooked with spices and meat), kachumbari (tomato and onion salad tasted only with squeezed lemon juice and salt, but this has become my favorite!) and mchuzi wa kuku (chicken stew). I had doubted a little about the food here for the first two days because all I had eaten out then was Italian BMT and lasagna, but one bite of pilau and kachumbari was enough to get rid of my unsettling thoughts.

Just like ramen/soba noodles in Japan and Romados chicken and buffalo wings in the US/Canada, I guess I was successfully able to find my favorite staples here in Tanzania.

PS
I’m regretting to announce that I haven’t taken many photos here yet. What I was told was that people here are sensitive about being photographed, and that I need extra caution when and where to take my camera out and go nuts. I know I have to start photographing soon because I have already seen so many good moments and I’m sure within a month or so what’s entertaining will be a norm for me.