Doha
Al Zanj Restaurant, located at Parco Mall, which offers a wide range of East African dishes, is doing a unique service. It has been bringing people together, not only Kenyans and Tanzanians, but those from the entire African continent.
The restaurant being run by a Kenyan has been in operation for about seven years now. Popular for serving East African cuisines, among other ethnic delicacies, the restaurant also serves sumptuous Nigerian dishes.
The place has become a hangout for many Kenyans, Tanzanians and Nigerians and last Friday was no exception. The restaurant arranged a food event for the new Kenyan Ambassador to Qatar H.E. Paddy C Ahenda and a group of Kenyans.
When away from their homeland, many East Africans crave for ugali -- an average family eats ugali and sukuma wiki (collard greens) for dinner. In Qatar, Al Zanj Restaurant provides these dishes and African expats just flock to the place to satisfy their taste buds.
Talking about his experience, the ambassador said, “This is a fantastic place. I have really enjoyed the African cuisine. This is a good place for Kenyans to have a taste of real home made food. There are so many varieties of dishes. The ingredients are sourced from Kenya and the dishes are very affordable. I would like to encourage anyone who would like to taste African food to come here, not only Kenyans but members of other nationalities too.”
The envoy said food unites people and they get to know each other and cultures through food. “The food at Al Zanj showcases not only the Kenyan culture but also the African culture.”
Praising the organisers of the event, the ambassador said, “I would like to thank Mr Feisal Saad and his spouse Hasne Saad who organised this dinner event which provided me an opportunity to meet and interact with Kenyans. I am sure we’ll continue to meet here more often.”
The restaurant owner, Hasne Saad said that besides enjoying authentic Swahili dishes, the gathering aimed at providing people a platform to meet and socialise in an informal setting. “This is the first time the new Kenyan ambassador visited our restaurant. We are very grateful for his patronage. We organised the gathering so people could have a relaxing evening and the ambassador could meet Kenyans,” he said.
Talking about the food offered on the occasion, Mrs. Saad said, “We served Kenyan food such as ugali, nyama choma, kachumbari, pilau, chapatti, mahamri and mukimo. That’s the classic home food.”
She said the main ingredients are sourced from Kenya for authentic taste and the meat for nyama choma is sourced locally.
Suleiman, head chef at the restaurant, said, “We are happy to see people enjoying our meals. We do typical African dishes. Majority of our customers are Kenyans and Tanzanians and we are always happy to serve them with ethnic food.”
