Feeling The Heat in Zanzibar

You may or may not know this, but Zanzibar is famous for its spices, with multiple spice farms occupying vast sections of the interior of the island. Being keen cooks Alena and I signed up for a spice tour and set off for one of the government owned farms - the farms are split between private and government ownership, but all spices have to be exported through the government.

Nutmeg

Despite having used many of the spices we saw on the tour I must admit there were several I was in the dark on as to how and where they were grown. For example cinnamon sticks are simply small branches from the cinnamon tree that have been dried out ready for cooking, and the vanilla vine is actual a parasite that grows on other trees and plants but produces the most amazing smelling black pods.

Vanilla

The tour itself was both interesting and great fun, with an assortment of locals walking with you making all sorts of accessories from the different leaves found on the plants. By the end of it I had an organic tie, bracelet glasses and lipstick, whilst Alena had a shopping basket, glasses, bracelet, ring and frog necklace. As to what we looked like with all these new acquirements I will let the pictures do us justice, or should that be injustice in my case!

Fresh cocoa

Following a delightful home-cooked meal, using the spices of the season, it was back to Stone Town where things got a little hot for me. I realise I have done some weird and interesting, even slightly stupid, things on my travels to date, but in hindsight this was the most stupid thing I have done.

Alena goes all green

The two most expensive spices to buy in Zanzibar are vanilla and saffron, the latter which Alena wanted to take back for her Mum. With the haggling not really getting us a good price I jokingly offered to eat ten of the hottest chillies the spice merchant had in return for the biggest bag of saffron he had. If I am being honest I was not expecting him to accept my wager, which is why I had made it in the first.

Alas before I knew it he was counting out the chillies with a huge smile on his face - he may not have been getting any money but he would have plenty of laughter and a story to tell for days to come. And so, with a small crowd of fellow spice merchants gathered around, I was handed the chillies and suddenly realised there was no option but to do this. Thoughts of an episode of the Simpsons came to mind where Homer drinks candle wax before eating chillies to line his stomach - sadly that was not an option for me.

Ten of Zanzibar's finest chillies, and all for me!

There's no turning back now

Hmmm, maybe I shouldn't have done this

Am sure my Mum always told me to eat with my mouth closed

Feel the pain, love the pain!

Keycha Mzungu and his prize

And so in the chillies went, and I slowly began to chew them. At first I felt nothing, no heat, no pain, just the chillies crunching. A good tip for anyone stupid enough to repeat my act, do not gloat by sticking your tongue out with the chewed up chillies on claiming they are not hot. No sooner had I done this than the heat kicked in, not gradually but instantly. My mouth went from cold to raging hot in a split second leaving me with only one option - swallow and get water fast.

Down they went, out came my tongue to prove as much, and in went the water as Alena happily collected the prize on my behalf. The water did little but to increase the intensity of the heat and it was all I could do to keep moving to try and take my mind off the pain - all the while Alena and the spice merchants were finding the whole episode quite entertaining. Next came the tears, which I had no control over, and at this stage two litres of water had gone down my throat.

My saving grace was bananas, which slowly but surely reduced the heat, allowing me to return my mouth to normal with another bottle of water. Aside from a bag of saffron and major pain in my mouth, not to mention stomach on the following day, my act had earned me the title of 'Keycha Mzungu', which literally translates as 'Crazy White Man'. And so my love for spicy food has faded somewhat of late, and the mere thought of eating those chillies is enough to turn my stomach.

written by

MarcusInAfrica on October 9, 2009 from Stone Town, Tanzania

from the travel blog: Cape to Cardiff

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"Crazy white fool" more like! Good blogging mate ;-)

written by John Noble on October 11, 2009

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