Travelogue from Kenya & Tanzania: What do you actually get to eat on our tours?

In November 2021, Winnie travelled to Kenya and Tanzania. Many people have asked what you get to eat when you’re on one of our tours. Here’s Winnie’s report.

The food is good! What do they actually eat in East Africa?

Well, the locals typically start the day with fish or chicken soup, a little chapati and a cup of tea.

Later, they eat yams and ugali – a kind of tasteless polenta. On a good day, they might have fish or chicken. And piri piri – the Swahili word for chilli!

But never fear! There is a special “mzungu” menu (mzungu is also a Swahili word, which translates more or less as “foreign”).

For breakfast, there are eggs and toast. Omelette, scrambled, boiled – all kinds of eggs – and lots of fresh fruit! Bananas, papaya, watermelon, pineapple, mango, passion fruit – juicy, sweet and delicious. Tea/coffee and lots of juice.

Lunch varies greatly depending on whether it’s a packed lunch on safari or a buffet at a beach hotel.

Dinner is much the same wherever you are.

Soup. You ALWAYS get soup! Just for fun, I’ve noted down all the different types of soup I’ve encountered over the past 5 weeks.

• Onion soup without onion but with strips of pancake (waiter’s description, not mine…!)
• Butternut soup (multiple times)
• Broccoli soup
• Pumpkin soup
• Spinach soup
• Chicken soup
• Carrot soupLeek soup
• Tomato soup (multiple times)
• Potato soup (multiple times)
• Green banana soup
• Sweet potato soup
• Cauliflower soup

The first few times I was in East Africa, I just didn’t get why they serve hot soup in 35-degree heat. But now I’ve got used to it and actually look forward to it. The soups are always tasty, salty and definitely made from fresh and presumably organic ingredients.

After the soup comes the main course. If it’s a buffet, there is typically a selection consisting of fried chicken, some kind of stew, cooked or fried vegetables (almost always carrots, cauliflower, red onions and broccoli), potatoes and rice. Sometimes, you might be lucky enough to get fried spinach with garlic, and if it’s really exotic, there’ll be fried green bananas, which taste excellent! Without being a vegetarian, I absolutely don’t think you leave the table hungry for that reason either. And, yes. At the coast, you get really delicious seafood!

There’s always dessert, but I have to be honest and say that it’s not their speciality, so I usually skip it

Winnie, TourCompass.co.uk