LEARNING HOW TO COOK TRADITIONAL SWAHILI FOOD

One of the best parts of our stay at Zuri Zanzibar was the cooking class. The first two days we enjoyed & loved the food so much at Zuri that we had to learn how to make this delicious food ourselves. We want to give a big shout out to the team ta Zuri who were able to really accommodate our cooking request in a very short time and organize it in the wonderful spice garden.

The first step is a little tour of the spice garden – our guide Mohamad had an intensive knowledge of all the spice around the garden and he took us on a wonderful discovery of different spices and saw how they are cultivated. We loved the layout of the garden and quiet walks in the Spice Garden where Mohamad pointed out a monkey enjoying some fruit!

We got involved from the very first step by learning about the Spices and fresh ingredients during the tour in the garden (Spice Garden tour are free and can be done any time of the day)

The food was pre-prepared, so we didn’t need to worry about chopping, cleaning, or peeling, which made the whole cooking experience as easy and comfortable as possible. We then arrived at the kitchen after our spice garden tour and started cooking after putting our chef’s hats on. Special thanks to John & Veronica for making our experience very special.

All kinds of local products are used whilst preparing a selection of classic Zanzibari dishes using several Swahili cooking techniques. Some of them were learning the traditional way of grating coconut and preparing coconut milk. (This is unique technique and very different to what is made in a factory or ready tins). In addition to this we learn learned how to make a Chapati (a typical Swahili bread) paired with Samosa (a typical Zanzibari snack – we made both beef & vegetarian) and coconut chutney. We then prepared Pilau rice with chicken or fish and kachumbari salad paired with octopus in coconut and spinach in coconut.

Everything is made from scratch, even the coconut milk. We had a fantastic time cooking Swahili style; and using the traditional coconut grater – The experience bought the best of us combined with the sun shining in full mood and a lovely setting in the garden.

This cuisine was heavily inspired by the rule of the Omani Arabs, Indian colonial workers, and the spice trade. It’s a fusion of both cultures with a touch of local African techniques and ingredients. It heavily uses fresh coconut milk a myriad of spices like cloves, cinnamons, cardamoms etc... where the chef physically demonstrated on how each course is prepared with intricate detail.

The whole experience is about 3-4 hours (Including the spice garden tour). Not only you get to learn about the Swahili style of cooking, but the experience also gave us the explanation of Zanzibari cooking influences and how food plays an important part in their culture.

After all the hard work of cooking and preparing all the delicious food we sure were hungry and ready to eat all the food we had just prepared.

Lunch degustation

The whole process of cooking was having friends come over and inviting them into your kitchen and having a memorable experience.

Thanks to Veronica who set up this beautiful table in the garden for us just as we were finishing up cooking and plating our meals.

The lunch degustation was relaxed and after a stress-free cooking class that included a lot of stories, experimentation and, of course, demonstrations and hands-on practice of cooking techniques. Overall, I would highly recommend this experience to anyone staying at Zuri Zanzibar. You can read about our review of the hotel HERE