KENYA FOOD
05-01-2014 di redazione
Kenya, which has often been improperly referred to as "Africa's Switzerland", benefits greatly from the fertility of its land, where it ends up suffering from the desert ruggedness of the north, bordering Ethiopia and to the east, towards Somalia.
In this country, which is three times larger than Italy, it is not only the savannah of the national parks that dominates it, but also vast plains and pleasant hills, wide lakes and imposing mountainous reliefs.
Nature celebrates many of its infinite aspects, offering enchanting landscapes and, invariably, different fauna and flora depending on the area. Thus also the fruits of the land, crops, livestock farming and food production in general, change connotations and results kilometre after kilometre.
Tea and coffee have the best near Lake Victoria, pineapple pineapple south of Nairobi and parts of the lakes Naivasha and Nakuru grow every kind of fruit or vegetables typically Mediterranean and that you would not expect to see in Africa: from strawberries to asparagus, from grapes to melon.
As if that were not enough, in the deep south, Kenya is washed by the Indian Ocean.
And that's where the fruits of the earth are joined by those of the sea. In Malindi, a few tens of metres apart majestic mango trees from shrimp and lobster swims, cornfields and spinach rise not far from the grouper's cheeks and octopus hideouts.
If once indigenous peoples did not dare to venture beyond the shores of the ocean and feed on the products of their rudimentary orchards, while the Arab and Indian merchants who had landed there also fished the wonders of the sea, today thanks to tourism and the encounter of races and habits, foods of land and sea have joined together giving life to a rich and varied gastronomy, which does not forget its origins
The cuisine of Malindi and the Kenyan coast is particularly affected by Indian and Middle Eastern flavours, the Portuguese passage, the English colonization and finally, nowadays, the Italian presence.
Elaborating everything in an austere but creative way, using the resources of this beautiful land.
TOURISM
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In recent years gastronomic tourism has grown considerably all over the world.
This is due to the popularity of certain programmes and also to the media coverage of dishes and restaurants, especially in social networks.
RECIPES
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The goodness of free-range chicken in Kenya is no mystery. In most cases it is simply cooked on the grill, but there are dishes of Swahili cuisine that contemplate other pleasant encounters of flavors. One of these is tamarind chicken...
PLACES
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A new, very nice "chiringuito" looks out onto the captivating setting of the Watamu beach meeting points.
In the bay of Fortamu, facing the island of love and just a few meters from
PRODUCTS
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Coriander, or dhania as it is called here, is a herbaceous plant whose fruits are used, mistakenly called seeds because they are small and hard, as well as its leaves, which are very similar to those of...
RECIPES
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An ancient Swahili legend says that before the arrival of the Portuguese, the natives of the Kenyan coast did not eat avocado but only used oil, because they did not consider it as fruit or vegetables.
When the Portuguese decided...
RECIPES
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The ugali, composed of posho or sima, i.e. cornmeal and a side dish that can be meat, fish or vegetables, is the unique dish typical of Kenya and especially of the coast.
CULTURE
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The Kiswahili language, originally from the coast of the same name that goes from the north of Mozambique to the Horn of Africa and later adopted also by the rest of East Africa, particularly by...
In the 13th century recipe book "Kitab al tabeek", the writer Muhammad Bin Hassan Bhagdadi, whose original manuscript is still kept in
PLACES
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Lunch in one of the most elegant and secluded boutique hotel in Watamu, on the shores of the Bay Jacaranda,
Directly across from the sandy islets of "Sardinia Due" and relax on the beautiful private beach sunbeds?
Or organize an...
CURIOSITY
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Virgola is one of the most well-known and important Italian brands in the hairdressing arena and its historical founder and owner Rinaldo Rampon is a love of Kenya.
For years he has watched Watamu and his beaches, but not only.
FOOD IN KENYA
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The Swahili cuisine has an infinity of delicious sweet dishes that, especially during the Ramadan period, you can discover and taste and then propose them on our tables.
The vipopoo or...
PLACES
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It was called "Jumba La Mtwana", where "jumba" in kiswahili means "home".
It was an Arabic citadel built in the 13th century AD on the banks of the Indian Ocean, not far from the cove of today's Mtwapa, about twenty...