Spices Spices Spices

We woke up to the smell of pancakes! Aren’t we a lucky bunch? Mila had woken up early and decided to surprise us with some delicious home-made pancakes. I think the group will be forever grateful for this. The rest of the morning was spent relaxing and lounging around the house and doing some administration. I think we were all really glad to be able to sleep in and not worry about waking up and working as this was the first time most of us had been able to relax since handing in our thesis.

The relaxation committee had planned a spice tour and cooking lesson for the afternoon and so we all jumped into the bus and went to Stone Town to meet Shara, the local woman who was to give us a cooking lesson. After a bit of a misunderstanding and mix up of meeting places we eventually found Shara at the Darajani market and then proceeded to shop for some wonderful fresh fish (Tuna and Kingfish) and colourful vegetables. You might be wondering why it would be so hard to find someone at a meeting place that we had previously agreed upon but the market was like nothing we had ever seen before. Thousands of people going in different directions, so many unfamiliar smells, sights and sounds and so this caused a bit of confusion but nothing to worry about too much as it all worked out in the end. After our shopping experience we hopped onto a dala dala and drove for about 30 minutes to Dole and ended up at the Tangawizi (meaning ginger) Spice Farm. We had a walking tour around the spice farm where our guide showed us all the different spices that are farmed in Zanzibar and explained how the spices go from the plant form to what we see in the shops. It was all so incredibly interesting as none of us really knew much about the spices that we saw: ginger, turmeric, cloves, cardamom, vanilla and pepper to name a few. We were even lucky enough to smell and taste them all. Fun fact of the day: did you know that all the different colours of pepper come from the same pepper tree? It is just the time at which they are picked(red, yellow, green) and how they are processed (black and white) that cause the different colours.

Next up was our cooking lesson and what a treat that was! We learnt how to make four different Zanzbari recipes: coconut rice, spiced fish, potato curry and a pumpkin dessert. We even learnt how to make coconut milk from scratch! Parents and friends, watch out! I am sure you will all be treated to some fine Zanzibari cuisine soon enough. The day had been long and after our delicious dinner we got back onto a dala dala and motored home. On the dala dala it was decided that a drink was definitely in order and so we spent the rest of the evening at our little house having a few drinks and just enjoying each others company. What a wonderful way, to end a wonderful day, spent with wonderful people.