As you can probably tell where I’m from as mentioned numerous of times alongside the title. We will be talking about something close to me and just shining a light on African cuisine. Particularly Swahili cuisine. So here’s a small intro into the cuisine.

To me African food is not really represented in the greatest of light or it’s just known and predominantly associated with west African specifically Nigeria. Not every African country has jollof rice. So with that being said, hope you do take into account there are a large variety of cuisines in Africa. I mean there’s 54 countries within the content and Swahili cuisine is no different. With mixture of cultures you’re bound to have wonderful dishes. Influences from the Middle East, Indian & Portuguese. This would be due to the settlement of these cultures throughout time in the past. The abundance of spices has made a lot of difference to our original method of cooking which did not involve many spices. It was very simple where they would just show case the flavours of the actual ingredient. This can be the greens to the proteins which are just cooked and served.

One of the dishes every Kenya loves and knows is Myama choma. This is just basically barbecued meat. Usually served with Ugali (maze flour mixed with water) and kachumbari (Tomatoes, Red onion, cCoriander, Cucumber & Chilli). Pilau rice etc. Predominantly in my culture and tribe (luo) we are known as meat eaters. Although Swahili cuisine in itself perpetuates mainly seafood dishes I like the variety to go between both. With tilapia being the fish mostly used.

So in a nutshell Swahili cuisine has influences from various places that bring spice and depths of flavour.