Festive Rice · Spice Island Biryani
Biryani ya Zanzibar
Photo: Kerigo / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0
Zanzibari cooks judge a good biryani by how distinctly separate each rice grain stays after cooking; a mushy pot is considered a kitchen failure.
Layers of fragrant rice and spiced meat, perfumed with cloves, cinnamon and cardamom, are cooked together until the flavors meld, then served with kachumbari and a wedge of lime. On Zanzibar it's centerpiece food for weddings and Eid celebrations, and it also turns up at Forodhani Gardens' night food market.
Why it's made this way: Brought by nineteenth-century Indian merchants who settled under the Sultanate of Zanzibar, biryani was adapted with local spices and coconut and became a symbol of celebration and hospitality across the island.
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