My New Favourite Chinese Restaurant!

We have a new Chinese restaurant in Arusha, near Shoppers, the grocery store we go to all the time.  I know this might not seem that exciting, but we don't have that many options here of different cuisines.  There's a Chinese restaurants at AIM mall, but it's not very authentic, and there's one on the other side of town, but not easy to get to on a regular basis.  This one is right in the area we always go to, and it's really good!  Definitely the most authentic Chinese food I've had since moving here!  Today I got spicy cauliflower (that is actually spicy!) and Sichuan chicken.  It made me miss by days in Wuhan a bit. :) 

On the way home, we had a beautiful sunset!  

 

Chinese Food for Valentine's Day!

On Monday night, I left work a bit early to go to Arusha with Beth and Tizo. I really needed groceries, and due to other stuff going on throughout the week it didn't look likely that there would be another chance.  While in town, we were supposed to meet some friends of Tizo for dinner at an Indian restaurant, but it turned out that the friends couldn't make it and the Indian restaurant wasn't open.  So, instead, we went to a Chinese restaurant that they like to go to for special occasions, since it was Valentine's Day.  I hadn't been to it, and I love Chinese food, so it was a fun outing.   

Emmy was so cute that day with her hair in puff balls!  She's getting so big! 

Below: sizzling chicken!  One of the things that I don't like about life in Monduli is the limited restaurants in a small town; the few we have are only Tanzanian food.  Previous to this, I've lived in big cities for all of my adult life, and even Columbia has quite a variety (Mexican, Chinese, Italian, etc.), so I miss having a variety of places nearby.  Arusha has quite a few options, so I really enjoy it when I get to try a new place there! 

We have a Pizza Hut!

Look what we have now! A Pizza Hut! We've been seeing the 'coming soon' billboards for months now, and they actually built it reasonably fast, in the corner of the parking lot of the big grocery store we usually go to (so it's even convenient!) As far as I know, it's the only American chain restaurant we have in Arusha; as unbelievable as it may seem, we don't even have a McDonald's or a KFC. 

Honestly, we do have good local pizza restaurants, so it's not really that life-changing, but it is convenient and fast.  Also, Beth and Michela will kill me if they ever see that I posted that picture of them, so don't tell them. ;) 

The veggie supreme pizza (my first pick is almost always veggie pizza) comes with corn on it, which is a weird thing that happens outside the US, but I got them to leave it off, thankfully.  I've eaten plenty of pizza with corn on it when I lived in China, and while it's not terrible, it adds a bit of a weird crunch that I can do without.  Also, here they often supply a couple of packets of ketchup with your pizza.  We have yet to figure out why.  I really hope we never find out why, actually.

Dinner at Hapa Hapa

I know, I know, pictures of someone else's food is boring.  But I'm sharing it anyway; it was that good.  Every meal I had in Lamu was good.  Food in East Africa tends to be quite simple, and at least in Tanzania, not heavily spiced.  Along the coast, though, there has been a lot of influence from India and the Middle East.  Tonight I had roast chicken and chapati (like thick, soft, fried tortillas) with a yellow curry sauce.  The restaurant, Hapa Hapa (Here Here) was small, and I was the only customer (though it isn't really tourist season, and I was eating a bit late), but the food was wonderful.  I may have to come back tomorrow for more.  (Edit: I did, in fact, go back and have more the next night.) 

Pizza at George's

Here in Tanzania, I rarely eat out, because there's not much to buy out here in Monduli unless you want roast chicken with french fries.  Not that there's anything wrong with that, but there's only so often I want that. While Monduli is only has a few small family-run restaurants, Arusha has a wide variety, so we sometimes take the chance to have a meal out while we're running errands in the city.  Today we went to George's, which is a Greek/Pizza place that our friend Anna (a missionary in Kisongo, a town between us and Arusha) really loves.  While the pizza is pretty good, I think I prefer Bravo's at the mall.  They have a nice, shady outdoor dining area, though, and some swings for children.  

Isn't she adorable?

Khan's

On the last day of September, I finally got to try Khan's.  Beth and Michela both had been talking about it as one of their favorites, so I was excited to go.  

Khan's is an Indian barbecue place.  By day, it's a car parts store, but once the business day ends Khan and his men pull the grills out into the street and set up tables on the sidewalk, so they are only open after dark. (Although they also do catering for special events sometimes). 

 You order plates of meat (beef, lamb, or most famously, chicken) and naan (plain or garlic) for your table, and then make a trip to a table with sauces, side dishes, samosas, and something they call Zanzibar pizza.

Jackson gets his sauces while Khan (in the middle in the vest) refills the silverware container. 

Two American nurse practitioners, Donna and Karen, who visit every year to help out at the clinic, went with us, since they had never tried it.  We all ate until we were stuffed, and had leftovers to take home.  The only downside to the evening that Tizo's (Beth's husband) left mirror was stolen off his car from where it was parked up the street.  Khan came out to commiserate and offer advice about having the license plate number printed on the glass (as most cars do here, since mirror theft is apparently a thing here.)  

There are more tables on the sidewalk across the street.  

Spicy grilled chicken...yum.

Jackson really isn't impressed with my photography skills.

Shopping and Pizza

Arusha is the third-biggest city in Tanzania, and thus has plenty of stores and restaurants with things we can't get in Monduli.  Really, only the basics of most things are available in Monduli, so there are frequent trips into Arusha not only by we Americans but also by many of the local Tanzanians to run all sorts of errands and find various items.

There's a big new supermarket, Shoppers, that we often stop at.   There's a cafe in the back with good food and free Wi-Fi and a play place for children, and in a strip mall beside it there are several restaurants that, while I haven't had the chance to try them myself yet, the others say are pretty good.  One is a Mexican restaurant; I've been told not to get my hopes up as far as authenticity but is pretty good if you like meat on something between a tortilla and flatbread without expecting it to be particularly Mexican in flavor.  

In the grocery store parking lot...notice Mt Meru behind the bus!

Shoppers has a pretty good selection of food; I can get peanut butter, nutella, Mars bars, butter, canned goods, good bread, crackers, etc, and a pretty good variety of housewares there. Though, it does also have a few interesting items: I've never seen mac and cheese in a can.  I think I'll pass.  It's a bit of a hobby of mine to visit grocery stores wherever I live or travel, though; there's always something interesting or that gives a bit of insight into the local culture.  For example, Italians generally buy their baked goods rather than baking themselves.  Once fairly early on in the time I lived there I was looking for sugar at the grocery store, but it was nowhere to be found on the aisle with the flour.  Turns out they don't automatically associate it with flour (which is used for making pasta); the sugar was by the coffee.  And then I was at Kroger's in Nashville and found fishless tuna.  I'm really not sure I want to know what was in that can.  

While we were in town, we also stopped at Bravo Pizza.  I was pleasantly surprised at how good it was and the options they had; it's more traditional Italian style than American, so each person generally orders their own small pizza.  I had half veggie and have "Chicken Bravo", which had chicken, mushrooms, and onions.  Both were delicious.  Unfortunately, the restaurant is in a neighborhood on the opposite side of Arusha from us, so we likely won't get over there too often.  We were there today because the Shorts needed to drop off one of their cars at a mechanic near there who had been recommended by a friend.

The outdoor seating area at Bravo.  The weather was perfect for sitting outside in the late afternoon.

Mt Kilimanjaro is everywhere! :)

My pizza.  Looking at the picture is making me hungry.