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The cuisine of Anjouan is a blend of Indian, Arabic, French and African cooking styles. The island's staple food is rice, most of which is imported. Most Anjouan meals revolve around a combination of rice and meat or seafood, prepared with any of the locally grown spices like vanilla, clove, coriander, cardamom, nutmeg or cinnamon. Fish and other seafood like tuna, squid, octopus and grouper are used amply along with chicken and goat.
Many popular Anjouan dishes like ‘Langouste a la vanille' (lobster cooked in vanilla sauce) bear a distinctive French flavor. Also a hit with the locals is a meal comprising typical Indian fare and vegetables like curries, chapattis, lentil soups and pickles. The Anjouanese cooking is not unlike other East African cooking that includes a lot of exotic ingredients like peppers, maize, chillies, tomatoes, bananas, pineapples, limes and oranges.
The locally grown Maize (corn) is used to make Ugali, which is a starch dish consumed with meats or stews. The Anjouanese cuisine is liberally infused with saffron, cloves, cinnamon along with several other spices and pomegranate juice, which testify to the heavy Arabic influence. The Europeans especially the Portuguese and the British, who followed them, introduced the techniques of roasting and marinating.
Being a pre-dominantly Muslim country, alcohol is strictly forbidden in Anjouan.
Methods of cooking
The cuisine of Anjouan is a mix of indigenous cooking methods and those borrowed from neighbors. The locals are fastidious as to the amount of spices used, for both spicing up and coloring the dishes. The visual appeal is also highly important and majority of the local delicacies are indeed lovely to look at.
The Anjouanese preserve meats by curing or smoking and they cook food in special wooden vessels. In addition, there are tools like cake pans, can openers, colanders, egg rings, poachers and holders, pans and containers.
By: Mini Sreenarayanan
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