Tanzania

Tanzanian cooking spans mainland staples like ugali and nyama choma and the spice-laden Swahili cuisine of Zanzibar, where cloves, coconut, and cardamom rule. Pilau, biryani, and street snacks reflect Indian and Arab trade.

Zanzibar's spice reputation has hard history behind it. The island was for a time the world's leading clove producer, planted under Omani rule, and the trade shaped what is cooked there: coconut, cardamom and cloves through rice and fish in a way the mainland does not do. Urojo, the Zanzibar mix soup, and mishkaki skewers are the street names worth knowing.

On the mainland the plate is simpler and firmer. Ugali is stiff maize porridge broken off by hand and pressed into a scoop for the relish beside it, and nyama choma is meat grilled slowly over coals and eaten in company. Maize itself is a colonial-era crop; the older grains here are sorghum and millet.

Chewy-crisp coconut candy scented with cardamom, a sweet of the Swahili coast.