Oh yes. That’s right. The best served from a cart on the side of the road’ food in the world. That’s right, we’ve entered the world of shwarma!!

As you walk down the street you smell something in the air….cooking meat, spiced with something that sets your taste buds aflame. Then you see it, roasting on a spit in front of a flame so large that as you come closer, you can actually hear it cook. Getting closer still, you walk up and see it turn so that the meat that had been facing the flame is now bubbling in your direction. You have no choice but to fork over you money and place an order…you’ve been sucked in, mind control …

More common than tacos in Mexico, fuul is the staple dish of the Sudan. Boiled fava beans, served like a stew with fresh cheese, fresh herbs or salad, a dash (or smothering) of olive oil and salt, fuul is actually quite filling. No pun intended. Boiled in a special pear shaped pot, fuul is probably the most common food at the local ‘hole in the wall’ street cafes in the Sudan.
I know boiled fava beans sounds rather bland, but I actually liked fuul. Maybe because it was the exact opposite of the spicy Ethiopian stews. Served with pita and eaten with your hands, I got quite used to and even looked forward to our daily allotment of fuul. …

Although the Italians were pushed out of Ethiopia after only a few years, their influence remains in the cuisine and coffee crazed culture of Ethiopia. Nearly every local restaurant or cafe serves pasta, usually spaghetti bolognese or marinara, and certainly every bar has a true ‘Made in Italy’ espresso machine.
That’s not to say that Ethio-Italian is true Italian. Trust me, I lived in Florence, I know real Italian. This is not, it’s distinctly Ethio-Italian, which as you may have guess means berbere spice. Some places the pizza was so heavily ladened with berbere that we had to take breaks for water between bites. Other places had a delicious blend of berbere and tomato …

The best way I can describe a chat house, is that it is a den. A dark, smoky, den and incidentally a place to chew chat. It felt a little weird, actually very weird stooping through the door of the chat house and realizing I was the only woman inside. Against the walls, several low couches sat affronted by small coffee tables. Positioning myself in the corner, I sat down with the group and tried to take in the scene.
Chat is a traditional natural stimulant used in eastern Africa, similar to coca leaves in Peru and Bolivia. Called miraa in Kenya, the leave is popular along the ancient trading routes. Unlike the coca leaves, chat is …