Spice and Surf
Sleep training went well. I got up about 8:15am, great progress from the 6-7 we have been doing. Still a long way to go though! Breakfast was sparse compared to what we have been having (no cereal :( ), I mainly had toast. The drinks were interesting though, some juice with some spices in, and a masala tea, which is all spices. They do call it a spice island!
Jack Fruit. You may know from my prior blogs that at different ripenesses it tastes and is eaten like either a fruit or a vegetable! Here the veggie version is known as Bread Fruit because it is starchy, but it is still from the same tree
Nutmeg. The yellow flesh is inedible, and too much nutmeg can cause hallucinations
A nutmeg growing. Or is it some nutmeg growing... not sure if it counts as one
Teak, a prized building material and often used for doors and balconies, especially in Stone Town where there is an array of engraved doors
A mango tree. Aside from the obvious fruit, the wood is also used here to make canoes
Cassava plants. Nobody cares about the plants though, the roots are what are most widely used
Cloves actually grow red! They are sun dried which turns them black, and the oil is used for toothache. Even the leaves smell like cloves!
Here their Swahili is mixed with near English words, due to the British rule from 1890 to 1963. Skuli is school (seen here), and for another one example Baskeli means bicycle
They crossbreed some stuff to protect against diseases
Cinnamon is just bark! It shouldn’t be taken from the trunk, but basically any damage to the branches can be recovered. Once it is taken it is dried and rolled, which is why it comes in sticks
Cardamom just sort of shoots out of the base of the plant. It needs shade to grow
Here’s the main plant. Nothing but the weird base shoots gets used
Aside from eating papaya, you can also use the “milk” it produces when cut to remove sea urchin spines, which snap when you try and pull them out and stay embedded beneath the skin
The tumeric plant dies after about a year of growth, but the root never dies (technically called a rhizome), and this is what is used in cooking. The leaves still smell though
The plant looks very generic!
Lemon grass is also used to make citronella as well as being a flavouring
The cocoa pods actually smell like watermelon. I think we all know what this makes though
It wasn’t durian season, else we wouldn’t have been allowed under the durian trees. They often kill people they fall on. They are also quite universally banned in Indonesian hotels due to the smell. What an antisocial fruit!
Vanilla vines are hand pollinated and dried in the shade. Another one that should need little introduction
The leaves of the henna tree are what makes the “ink” for henna tattoos, after mixing with lemon/lime juice
Ginger makes one of my favourite beverages, amongst other things
Coffee also makes one of my favourite beverages! This is the robusta variety, which is picked when the beans are red, then dried
The only fun fact I could dig up for hot pepper was it’s funny Swahili name
Look carefully and you can see peppercorns. If picked when green and sun dried it becomes black pepper, if left until red then submerged in water to remove the skin it is white pepper
If you have never seen a pineapple growing you are missing out!
This funny named tree is used in many perfumes, including Chanel No 5
The moon looked so evil I had to rush and get my camera!
Keeping on with the spice theme, I had elected to do a spice tour at 11: we would be stopping off on the way up north to our final hotel and looking round a plantation with various fruits, spices, and such. Before that, me and Gemma had a little walk around Stone Town to get money. Glamorous I know!
The spice tour was round the biggest plantation on Zanzibar, 300 acres, which doesn’t sound a lot if you ask me, but there you are. 200 people work and live on the plantation, which sounds a lot for 300 acres to me, but there you are! We had lunch, which was included in the price, first: pilau rice, with chicken in sauce (a bland, watery one, not curry), and cassava leaves. Interesting that most of the flavour came from the rice, with spices from the plantation at that. It was pretty good.
Get ready to know more about spices and fruits than you ever wished to:
Jack Fruit. You may know from my prior blogs that at different ripenesses it tastes and is eaten like either a fruit or a vegetable! Here the veggie version is known as Bread Fruit because it is starchy, but it is still from the same tree
Nutmeg. The yellow flesh is inedible, and too much nutmeg can cause hallucinations
A nutmeg growing. Or is it some nutmeg growing... not sure if it counts as one
Teak, a prized building material and often used for doors and balconies, especially in Stone Town where there is an array of engraved doors
A mango tree. Aside from the obvious fruit, the wood is also used here to make canoes
Cassava plants. Nobody cares about the plants though, the roots are what are most widely used
Cloves actually grow red! They are sun dried which turns them black, and the oil is used for toothache. Even the leaves smell like cloves!
Here their Swahili is mixed with near English words, due to the British rule from 1890 to 1963. Skuli is school (seen here), and for another one example Baskeli means bicycle
They crossbreed some stuff to protect against diseases
Cinnamon is just bark! It shouldn’t be taken from the trunk, but basically any damage to the branches can be recovered. Once it is taken it is dried and rolled, which is why it comes in sticks
Cardamom just sort of shoots out of the base of the plant. It needs shade to grow
Here’s the main plant. Nothing but the weird base shoots gets used
Aside from eating papaya, you can also use the “milk” it produces when cut to remove sea urchin spines, which snap when you try and pull them out and stay embedded beneath the skin
The tumeric plant dies after about a year of growth, but the root never dies (technically called a rhizome), and this is what is used in cooking. The leaves still smell though
The plant looks very generic!
Lemon grass is also used to make citronella as well as being a flavouring
The cocoa pods actually smell like watermelon. I think we all know what this makes though
It wasn’t durian season, else we wouldn’t have been allowed under the durian trees. They often kill people they fall on. They are also quite universally banned in Indonesian hotels due to the smell. What an antisocial fruit!
Vanilla vines are hand pollinated and dried in the shade. Another one that should need little introduction
The leaves of the henna tree are what makes the “ink” for henna tattoos, after mixing with lemon/lime juice
Ginger makes one of my favourite beverages, amongst other things
Coffee also makes one of my favourite beverages! This is the robusta variety, which is picked when the beans are red, then dried
The only fun fact I could dig up for hot pepper was it’s funny Swahili name
Look carefully and you can see peppercorns. If picked when green and sun dried it becomes black pepper, if left until red then submerged in water to remove the skin it is white pepper
If you have never seen a pineapple growing you are missing out!
This funny named tree is used in many perfumes, including Chanel No 5
After the tour we continued on to our destination, Nungwi on the north coast of Zanzibar. It was an hour or so’s drive, and I mainly napped on the way. The resort, Amani Bungalows, is very nice! There is a nice pool, and it is also right on the beach (where you have to watch out for sea urchins!), plus the rooms are spacious. The only downside is that the WiFi is very dodgy, but it is a big upgrade from none!
I sorted my luggage out, grabbing the clean clothes from the depths of my bag, and repacking to see how much space I have left, then went for a swim for a bit of exercise, as it has been a lot of sitting around these last couple of weeks!
Tea was a buffet with the whole group. It was very nice, with some Zanzibar cuisine like their signature soup (super weird, still don’t know whether I like it or not), and various Indian type dishes with a seafood twist, alongside more standard fare, much of which was cooked in front of you. It was a bit pricey at $15 a head though.
The moon looked so evil I had to rush and get my camera!
After tea it was back to sleep training! I managed until midnight, just right as I would be getting up around 8 for a bit of a snorkel
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