Zanzibar's Spice Tour

I've always been fascinated by coconut trees- this is my favorite doodle image- and have dreams of running my own coconut plantation one of these days. You can just imagine my glee when I was able to tour a government owned coco plantation a few minutes outside of Stone Town in Zanzibar and witness how the locals pick a ripe coconut off the tree. They sing while both feet is tied to a contraption that enables them to hop upwards with ease. 

Coconut is a staple ingredient in Zanzibar cuisine. Most foods are cooked with coconut oil and on two occasions, I tasted an out-of-this-world coconut curry with potatoes and vegetables. I have yet to discover the right recipe to recreate this dish.


The lipstick fruit or achiote that, yes, you can use as lipstick as shown below. This is way cheaper than a MAC lipstick!



I agreed to taste the durian because of his happy face.

At the Sasi Spice Farm, they fed me with endless fruits from durian (yuck!), oranges to bananas and Zanzibar coffee. If you come from a tropical country, these fruits will not really surprise you.

This is my first time seeing pure ylang ylang. The original scent is very sensuous and different from what you get in the store usually in a form of perfume or lotion.

And also my first time seeing real nutmeg. Who would have thought that it actually looks like this!
I thoroughly enjoyed the Spice Tour experience, especially since I've learned how some spices look, feel and smell like from the plant. And yes, I'm still very much fascinated with coconuts, specifically the spiral one below and aim to make my dream into reality.



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