WHY ZANZIBAR SHOULD BE ON YOUR TRAVEL MENU - TELEGRAPH
My time in Zanzibar was a rich journey of discovery, of beautiful people and fragrant dishes, of colours and scents and heightened senses. Best of all, I got to share this experience with friends back home in the UK — including in The Telegraph. Keep reading for an excerpt of my travel diary.
"How spicy do you like it? Add more, always more. OK, enough!” said Bakari, our tour guide and cook, as I added a freshly ground mix of cardamom, cinnamon, black pepper and turmeric to the cooking pot sizzling on open coals. A wave of complex and taste bud-tingling fragrances and aromas washed over me. I knew I had arrived in Zanzibar, the island of spices.
I couldn’t wait to tuck into this fish curry dish, with fresh ingredients measured not by the cup but by intuition. “Careful of your eyes,” Bakari said as he expertly showed me how to make a paste from ginger, garlic and chilli in a wooden pestle and mortar. I closed my eyes and held the top of the pot shut while pounding the mixture, in order to avoid the hot sting of chilli.