Dinner Market

We left the hotel, debating on where to eat. Finally, we decided on the market that is set up each evening near the “tip” of Stonetown, right on the coast.

Many, many tables lined the sidewalk, each offering kabobs of grilled seafood or Zanzibar pizzas, or even fresh squeezed (through a rolling press) sugar cane juice.

We tried a few of the kabobs. Not bad, but the meat was rather tough; it’d been grilled a bit earlier and was warmed over a grill before we ate it.

We also shared a Zanzibar pizza. I would have rather not seen how this was made, but even in spite of that, it wasn’t bad. Two layers of dough were stretched out, with a sort of bowl made in the middle. In that area, the cook placed a scoop of cooked ground beef, some freshly chopped onion and tomato, a little mayo, and an egg—raw. Granted, it was all to be cooked, but still, seeing that egg did make my stomach make a small flip-flop. Another layer of dough was placed atop it all, with the edges being sealed, before the entire pizza was placed on a heated flat-grill. Not exactly the kind of pizza I’m used to, but not bad for a hungry traveler.

We walked around a bit more, twice with several local boys coming up, introducing themselves, and asking to practice their English. They were high-school age, and they really wanted to practice conversational skills. They were very sweet boys, so we stopped and chatted a while before moving on.

We also looked at the goods the merchants had set up for tourists, with me, of course, doing a bit of shopping.

And again, alas, when we attempted to wind our way back to the hotel, we had to enlist the aid of a small boy to lead us back. After all, it was dark by this time, and it was even more difficult navigating the paths. The young boy was very sweet, and we gave him close to a thousand shillings (just less than a dollar). He was pleased; we were pleased. It was all good.