SIXTH ANNUAL GLOBAL CULINARY TRAVEL AWARDS NAMES 10 WINNERS OF EXCELLENCE (LUSAKA, September 14, 2022) – This week, the World Food Travel Association announced the winners of its 2022 Global Culinary Travel Awards to recognize excellence and innovation in culinary products and experiences for travelers. This year’s winners are: Best Emphasis on Wellness & Health…
Eating well on vacation is one of the best indulgences. Sustainable tourism is not the top of our minds as we enjoy that steak and sushi. But, in addition to the vacation weight gain, our enjoyment of vacation meals comes at an environmental price, too: Around one-quarter of the calories the world produces are thrown…
Is it getting crowded in here or it is just me? African cities are exploding with population. Check out these population trajectories: Africa is likely to have 500 million more people in 2050 than the UN 2010 projection. That’s a half billion more people! By 2050, the population of Nigeria will overtake the population of…
Exploring Djibouti culture through food: Never did I ever imagine I’d visit Djibouti. When a last-minute work trip took me here, my inner foodie jumped into hyperdrive to figure out as much as I could about the food culture and cuisine in 7 days. Not a clue about Djibouti: Djibouti is a small country of…
Exploring Djibouti cuisine through street food: I stayed in a hotel in Djibouti Centre Ville (downtown) for 7 days, and after huge lunches (see Part 1 of the story), sometimes I just wanted something small in the evening. After sunset prayers, the city streets come alive until late at night. After dark, I often walked…
Connecting over a meal: I recently had a seven-day work trip to Djibouti with a group of African colleagues from Uganda, Kenya, Benin, Zambia, and British/Somali descent. Djibouti is in the Horn of Africa and shares borders with Somaliland, Ethiopia, and Eritrea. As the crow flies, Djibouti is only 245km from Aden (Yemen), across the…
Zanzibar is a great foodie travel destination, if you know the secrets to finding traditional Zanzibar food. Fresh food is seen everywhere, from the spices on the Zanzibar spice tours, to the displays of fish and vegetables in the bustling Darajani market in Stone Town, to the coconut palm trees lining the roads. But it…
Looking for the best traditional Zambian food? Jiranileo “One Zambia One Nation” meals are available daily in homes in Livingstone, just a short drive from the spectacular Victoria Falls. Our hosts cook the best traditional Zambian food, and they will serve you relishes, fruits, and drinks that not usually on the menu in restaurants in…
How can a foodie in Zambia taste the flavors of the world if international travel isn’t a possibility? Exploring the world using an Zambian passport (and most African passports) is not easy. A UK passport holder can travel to 173 countries visa-free (or visa on arrival). In comparison, Zambians can only travel to 66 countries…
The Jiranileo team loves to explore Africa through food. Whenever we travel, we figure out the foodie scene in three ways: (1) Doing a lot of eating (like this photo of us eating kasongole on the side of the road in Livingstone, Zambia); (2) Talking to everyone we can about what they eat at home;…
The road from Eastern Zambia to Lusaka (Zambia’s capital city) winds mostly through villages, and on the seven-hour bus ride you see more goats than people on the road. At one point the road winds up through the Manenekela hills, giving beautiful views of the forest to take your mind off the treacherous road. One…
The short rains in Western Kenya lasted exactly 30 days in 1996, coinciding with my senior research project for university. I typed up my notes every afternoon to the racket of the weaver birds outside my window. While I explored the roles of women and men in child health, these weaver birds were the epitome…
Stories Around the Table are light-hearted anecdotes about figuring out what to eat and who to eat with when traveling around Africa. African food can be largely unfamiliar to travelers – both to Africans and non-Africans – given the incredible cultural and food diversity across the 54 countries and innumerable tribes across the continent. (Check…