African Food And Cuisines
Author: Gerald Wanga

Africa is perhaps known more for it's African Safaris and white
sandy beaches but when it comes to food, African food can easily
hold it's own among the best known cuisines in the world.
African food is generally quite gentle with the likes of snails
and rodents in west Africa, snakes in central Africa, monkeys,
cats and dogs eaten in Nigeria and Ghana, termites, or even
locusts eaten in Uganda being exceptions rather than a rule.

The traveler to Africa you will often find foods like pizza,
burgers or at least good attempts at coming with something close
to pizzas and burgers chicken and fries in most towns in Africa.


Most African travelers often find themselves counting familiar
brands in Africa the likes of burger King, coca cola and many
more. Americans are notorious at this.

As an African Safaris traveler should you want a taste of the
local cuisine you will often find a lot and a variety depending
on where you are in Africa.

By far the best known of Africa's finest traditional dishes are
Moroccan, Ethiopian and Swahili dishes. Morocco offers tajines,
couscous (possibly getting its inspiration from West Africa,
where it's traditionally steamed in baobab leaves), great
tasting soups and scrumptious sweets. In East Africa and along
the coast Swahili cooking rules supreme, making loving use of
herds and spices introduced into Africa from Arabia, India and
the Far East, with seafood being especially good.

Ethiopian cuisine is in a class of its own: injera as it is
known is the staple and is a large pancake from which diners
which they use to scoop up dollops of highly spiced stews.

Seafood is prepared differently in different regions. In
Zanzibar it is prepared spicy, in coconut sauce or stiffed with
vegetables and cooked in tomato, in Senegal. In South Africa,
Brits can truly feel at home with fish and chips off course
minus the newspaper. In many parts of Africa especially in the
countryside it's best to eat fish close to the places where they
are caught.

For the meat eaters or carnivores as they like to be called,
Kenya's carnivore restaurant in Nairobi is a great place to
indulge. Here you can try game meat from impala steaks, hippo,
ostrich to crocodile burgers which by the way taste either like
fish or chicken depending on what the crocodiles which are often
breed on crocodile farms were feed on.

In southern Africa namely South Africa, Namibia and Botswana
popular barbecues feature all kinds of meat and Boerwurst
sausages which are often washed down with good beer.

In rural Kenya smoked wild birds are also a popular with
locals.

For those who are daring, South Africa offers culinary
challenges from caterpillars fried to sheep and chicken heads
all of which are reputed by locals anf foreigners alike to be
delicious. For the not so daring, there are other indigenous
delicacies such as biltong which consists of dried, salted meat,
bobotie which is simply a much-improved version of Shepherd's
pie and boerewors which is hand-made farm sausages, often
grilled on an open flame.

In south Africa too as in other parts of Africa, those who
prefer to play it safe will find that most restaurants offer a
familiar global menu - which includes anything from hamburgers
to sushi to Chinese in Chinese restaurants which are quite
popular to spaghetti bolognaise.


About The Author: Jerry Wanga is editor of the website that
provides information on Africa Vacation and masai mara safari
information African safari travelers. You can view more
information on the website. http://naady.com