One of the best things about travelling is trying out the local cuisine. A journey to new destination is not complete without also eating the food from that place. For this reason, we felt that food deserved its own category within Harambee Africa as one of the best ways to familiarise people with new places is through food. Whether your style is to stick to familiar sounding dishes or to be more adventurous by trying the most exotic sounding dish, we want Harambee Africa to give you a taste of the variety of cuisines that are available across Africa and within countries in Africa.
In addition to inspiring you to travel, we want to take you on a culinary journey as well. In today’s interconnected world, our exposure to foods that are from or inspired by foreign cultures is so great that we hardly stop to think about it. Dishes such as hamburgers, pizza, and 2-minute noodles are ubiquitous with local versions of these also common. What’s been more impressive is the increase in restaurants that are focussed on a single country’s cuisine. However, in this trend, African restaurants have not had as much exposure as those from Asia, South America, or Europe.
What Harambee Africa wants to achieve is to help our readers become more familiar with all the different wonderful cuisines and dishes from around Africa. It is our hope that this will encourage you to go out and try some of these dishes at your local African restaurant or even try cook them at home. Our own food journeys are an example of what we want for our readers.
Clive
Quite simply, I love good food and discovering new dishes. It wasn’t always this way as I was a very picky eater when I was younger. The first experience that helped change that was being sent to boarding school at the age of 8. I remember missing a couple of meals where the menu did not sound (or smell) like something I’d like. Eventually I ran out of the snacks my parents had given me, so I had to eat what everyone else ate and I was pleasantly surprised.
However, it wasn’t till my early 20s, when I started travelling more extensively, that my passion for food was ignited. Travelling to new countries such as Japan, Thailand and Italy that have world renowned cuisines allowed me to expand my culinary horizons. What made it so easy was that the locals were so happy to guide a newbie like myself through the various dishes that their local cuisine offered. I think having that kind of local guidance really helps which is why I am really looking forward to Harambee Africa leading people to try more African food. My personal favourite African dishes include Zimbabwean Oxtail Stew, Nigerian Jollof Rice and South African Bunny Chow.
Eyob
Quite simply, I also love good food and discovering new dishes. However, I was always open to discovering new dishes, aromas, and textures. My mother and grandmother were incredible cooks. So much so that my mother ran a popular Ethiopian restaurant in Perth, Western Australia.
Everyone loved my grandmother’s food. Her way to our hearts was through her cooking and we all knew it. Till this day, every time we mention her food, we all smile. Those memories are etched strongly in our hearts, and I’d like to dedicate this article to her as she anchored the love of food in me.
When I moved to Australia, my love for food even grew stronger. My first job as an 18-year-old, was a kitchen hand at an Italian restaurant in Fremantle. This was even more fascinating as I got to see how chefs worked, learned how to do the basics, cooking on the grill, and learnt how to combine different ingredients to create flavourful dishes. After moving to Sydney, cuisines from Asian and Middle Eastern countries were prominent and this led to more incredible discoveries of new flavours and ingredients. There is so much to explore around food and when I think of all the African countries cuisine’s that I haven’t been able to try or discover yet, it’s exciting. My personal favourite African Dishes include Ethiopian Kitfo and Kocho, Senegalese and Nigerian Jollof Rice and Ethiopian Tibse.
