If its Tanzanian, Kenyan street food you are looking for and a chance to chat with some very welcoming Swahili speaking locals without having to catch a flight and travel to East Africa, then Barking market is the place to head for in 2021.
The Karibuni Zanzibar hot style is predominantly Tanzanian Street food trailer based at the bottom end of Barking Market if you come into the market via the train station. Serving Mandazi, Chapati, Nyama ya choma and many other traditional E. African dishes this holds high rank when it comes to quality street food. I chose the BBQ mix (Chicken, Beef & chips) washed down with a thirst-quenching tamarind juice. The flavour of the food was out of this world and left me feeling I had to come back and try some other dishes.
What is popular street food in Tanzania
Tanzania, (including the island of Zanzibar), Kenya and Uganda being the most prominent E. African countries share a similar background when it comes to food. The most popular being Ugali na Sukuma wiki. This dish is made up with a maize flour-based pudding served with cooked greens somewhere between the likes of kale and spinach called Sukuma wiki. (Sukuma wiki means push the week).
Traditional Tanzanian (Zanzibar) street food such as Urojo soup (Zanzibar mix), Mishkaki (Beef or chicken Kebabs), Mandazi, Nyama Choma, chapatti, Ugali na Sukuma wiki. Just to mention a few. many of these are also found in Kenya and some parts of Uganda. and is generally known as Swahili food.
The hot weather in E. Africa makes outdoor cooking preferential to indoor cooking. This normally will involve a BBQ and the most popular meat for a traditional E. African get together would be Goat (mbuzi) & Chicken. Not for the faint hearted, traditionally, these animals would be slaughtered in front of the guests.
The blood from the goat is drained into a bowl and mixed with the meat offal and some spices then using the intestine of the freshly slaughtered goat to make sausages called mutura. These sausages are then cooked on the BBQ with the other meat.
A great gift from Zanzibar
Is Swahili a real official Language?
Contrary to popular belief by many. YES, Swahili is an official real language. there are even some people who think it was a language made up for the hit theatre play lion king with the only words being Jambo, Simba, Habari and Hakuna matata.
Swahili is mainly an East African language spoken mainly by Tanzanians and Kenyans. Other East African countries such as Uganda, Rwanda and South Sudan Have been known to speak it in certain parts of the country. For reasons unbeknown to me it is quite often also spoken in Congo (Central Africa).
The Bantu tribe, from the southeast coast of Africa were the original Swahili speakers and the language was originally known as Kiswahili. Swahili is very much an Arabic based language. The Arabic word Sawahili meaning of the coast.
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Kevin Harrington is a keen photographer, blogger, and professional chef for over 40 years. With a passion for cooking and travel, Chefstravels was born. Thank you for visiting my site and I wish you every success in what you do.
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