Zanzibar: Sugar and Spice
My favorite thing about Zanzibar has nothing to do with laid back people, beaches, or Freddie Mercury. It's a visit at one of the spice plantations…and there are scores of them. I recall mentioning in my last post that Zanzibar is an interesting amalgamation of cultures, including the interesting architecture on display by Europeans and Arabs alike.
It is very fitting, then, that you would have a spice plantation that grows everything from vanilla and coffee beans to star fruits and pineapples. We direct our driver to stop at the Tangawizi plantation—Swahili for ginger. There you have it. Liebi wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.
There are no tour buses in the dirt parking lot, and no other vehicles, for that matter. And yet, a tour guide is quick to introduce himself in good King’s English as Mtoi, along with his ‘assistant’, Roger. Hm, I’m thinking, a tour just for the four of us. I’ll take it. Trudging behind, the kids are grumbling. What do pineapples and spices have to do with Minecraft or Just Dance 4?
One saying that recurs in typical Swahili fashion is ‘Hakuna Matata’. Yep, it's that same annoying saying from The Lion King that made me wish that I could make instant bacon out of the warthog and had me wondering what roasted meerkat might taste like. But no offense taken here. It just rolls off their tongues.
We learn about the spices they grow there. There’s enchaichai (lemon grass), something that can repel mosquitoes in one of its end products, which is citronella. There’s what you call in Swahili a fenesi, a jackfruit, or a hybrid between a banana and a pineapple. It’s quite delicious.
There’s codomain that, so the guide claims, will rid your breath of alcohol—useful for non observing Muslims in particular, he adds with a wink. We eat a couple of starfruits, and I like the bitter flavor of it with its crunchy texture.
They also grow cassava. Do you want to get to know something tastier than potato chips? How about cassava chips? Much crisper and crunchier too, although I can’t attest to the health bit.
We stop at a mud hut. Looking inside, we see there’s a single room and a kitchen—a bachelor pad, if you will. And yet, Mtoi claims, there's actually a market for these: the aforementioned bachelor pad, one with two bedrooms, three, living room, etc.
And here’s a quick trivia question: what is known as the queen of spices? Right, cinnamon. So labeled, because you can cut the bark off the tree and use it for medicinal purposes, or grind the leaves into teabags—an all-purpose plant, if you will. And for every queen there must be a king. That would be clove.
It is very fitting, then, that you would have a spice plantation that grows everything from vanilla and coffee beans to star fruits and pineapples. We direct our driver to stop at the Tangawizi plantation—Swahili for ginger. There you have it. Liebi wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.
There are no tour buses in the dirt parking lot, and no other vehicles, for that matter. And yet, a tour guide is quick to introduce himself in good King’s English as Mtoi, along with his ‘assistant’, Roger. Hm, I’m thinking, a tour just for the four of us. I’ll take it. Trudging behind, the kids are grumbling. What do pineapples and spices have to do with Minecraft or Just Dance 4?
One saying that recurs in typical Swahili fashion is ‘Hakuna Matata’. Yep, it's that same annoying saying from The Lion King that made me wish that I could make instant bacon out of the warthog and had me wondering what roasted meerkat might taste like. But no offense taken here. It just rolls off their tongues.
We learn about the spices they grow there. There’s enchaichai (lemon grass), something that can repel mosquitoes in one of its end products, which is citronella. There’s what you call in Swahili a fenesi, a jackfruit, or a hybrid between a banana and a pineapple. It’s quite delicious.
There’s codomain that, so the guide claims, will rid your breath of alcohol—useful for non observing Muslims in particular, he adds with a wink. We eat a couple of starfruits, and I like the bitter flavor of it with its crunchy texture.
They also grow cassava. Do you want to get to know something tastier than potato chips? How about cassava chips? Much crisper and crunchier too, although I can’t attest to the health bit.
We stop at a mud hut. Looking inside, we see there’s a single room and a kitchen—a bachelor pad, if you will. And yet, Mtoi claims, there's actually a market for these: the aforementioned bachelor pad, one with two bedrooms, three, living room, etc.
And here’s a quick trivia question: what is known as the queen of spices? Right, cinnamon. So labeled, because you can cut the bark off the tree and use it for medicinal purposes, or grind the leaves into teabags—an all-purpose plant, if you will. And for every queen there must be a king. That would be clove.
Clove was introduced by the sultan of Oman to Zanzibar, and the export of it has been closely monitored over the years. Even so, its crops in Zanzibar have been drastically reduced over the years.
There are plants that fold up with human touch, also known as the mimosas. Give it a try...just one touch, and it shrivels up like flowers out of soil and water.
Mtoi dares us to try the red chilis he picks off a plant. These are atomically red hot babies that will burn the tongue right out of your mouth, and I won't even try them.
At the end of our tour, there are kids who flock around us from a nearby village. They stare at the mzungus in their midst, in particular at the kids. To pass the time, they blow up balloons. No idea where these came from.
There's a guy who climbs up palm trees to retrieve coconuts for a living. He does his little spiel for us, singing from the top of his lungs on his way to the treetop. If there is anything more tasty than fresh coconut water, then I haven't tried it.
The kids are getting antsy. They've been good troopers for so long, but spices are just not very important to them. Fair enough. Time for the beach for them.
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