Miriam Kinunda is one of the first African food bloggers I met when I started blogging almost two ye

Miriam Kinunda is one of the first African food bloggers I met when I started blogging almost two years ago. It was easy to see why we connect: there are few bloggers from East Africa and it was an instant connections. Also, Kenyan and Tanzanian rubber tape cuisine are so similar due to the Swahili influences in our background. Miriam first began blogging in 2004 into what has now become " A Taste of Tanzania " food blog and a large database of Tanzanian dishes to try. She also accompanies her posts with detailed and popular youtube videos -- making her the definitive voice on Tanzanian food online I've already tried some of the recipes including this " Coconut Rice with Carrots and Peas " dish. She was recently featured in Ebony Magazine and you can expect the second edition of her recently published cookbook "A Taste of Tanzania" out this December 2013 (and there'll likely be a giveaway). rubber tape Without further ado, meet my good rafiki, Miriam.
Introduce yourself ! My name is Miriam Rose Kinunda, rubber tape I was born 43 years ago in Tanzania. Now I live in Phoenix, Arizona. rubber tape For those who've never been, what is Tanzania like? What is one place everyone should visit? Tanzania is a country on the east coast of Africa. Tanzanians are known to be very social people. As many other African countries, Tanzania is a developing country full of potentials. One place that everyone should visit is Serengeti National park. I have never been there but everyone who has been there love the place. I have too many positive feedback about Serengeti. What are the native rubber tape dishes in Tanzania? What's the style of cooking there? Our staple foods are Ugali , Mchicha (amaranth vegetable), Cassava, green bananas, sweet potatoes and beans. rubber tape Many Tanzanian households will have Ugali at least once a day; the most common type of ugali is a mix of water and maize flour. Ugali is served with any type of meat, fish or vegetable stew. Ugali Tanzania is a Swahili speaking country, so is the cooking style. Swahili cooking style is African mixed with Indian, Arabic, and a bit of European. We stew, ferment, deep-fry, mash and barbeque a lot using fresh ingredients from the market. Some recipes are very spicy and full of flavor like pilau and some recipes are just blunt like ugali . One must master to cook Ugali , then stewing. Charcoal stoves are very common, or nowadays gas stoves too. Electrical stoves are not used as much. Food prepared rubber tape on charcoal stoves usual taste better --I do not know why, but I guess the smoke from wood or charcoal adds flavor to the food. How did your love for cooking begin? rubber tape Since I was young, I would eat anything that is put in front of me. Before I was six years old, my friends and I would help ourselves to  rice or vegetables from the house, then we would make a small fire outside the house and cook using a margarine rubber tape tin-can as a pan. We enjoyed cooking in those tin cans so much. It was sad that my mom did not allow me to cook at that age. When I was 7 years old, I lived with a relative who was a home economics teacher, I used to watch her practicing different recipes at home and I would help once in a while, that is when I realized that cooking was fun. How would you describe your cooking? I like to eat healthy. For example instead of deep-frying fish, I broil until golden brown. The end result is the same as deep-fried fish. To get nice flavor, I never use canned tomatoes or canned rubber tape vegetables. The only canned products I use in my house are tomato paste, coconut milk and jackfruit. Everything else has to be fresh. rubber tape For sauces, I would make my own home made sauces. A good thing with Tanzanian recipes, we do not depend on processed ingredients. Everything is prepared right from the kitchen. coconut rice with peas and carrots How did "Taste of Tanzania" come about? In 2004, I decide to create a website to post recipes for my family and friends abroad who were always asking me to send them recipes. The domain name was my name; which was very long. In 2005, Ndesanjo Macha, an old friend of mine introduced me into blogging, he is the first Tanzanian blogger. So in 2006, I came up with a new URL and started blogging, also I decided rubber tape to write a cookbook. Then just after that, I became very busy with school: I was doing Masters in Information Technology at that time and with the family it was just too much, so I decided to put the idea of a cookbook aside. 2009 was a good year, I finally finished the cookbook “A Taste of Tanzania”. I wanted rubber tape my website URL to match with the book title, so I changed the URL again to www.TasteofTanzania.com. What's the best part of food blogging? Sharing recipes is the best part of food blogging. It does feel good to share recipes with others. We all cook and eat every day, but there is always someone who may need a recipe or two from someone rubber tape else. A few people do appreciate the recipes rubber tape I’m rubber tape posting and it does make a difference.   Lemongrass tea - chai ya mchaichai What are common misco