This is typical of “restaurant” food in Mupudi. The food is usually fairly tasty and well-seasoned, but it’s not really much to write home about. (Except that’s what I am doing right now…) It’s cheap, though. A plate like this costs $1 for a mound of rice, vegetable sauce, beans, greens, and a piece of chicken.
The service and ambiance are quite variable. Restaurants outside of the big cities (Dar, Arusha, Stone Town, etc.) are almost always outdoors. Sometimes you feel like you’re eating in the middle of a four square court. Other times, you have a nice shady spot under a grass roof. Sometimes you’ll wait two hours for your food, and they’ll bring rehydrated dried fish even though you ordered chicken. Then another time, a friendly owner will bring you piping hot food within minutes of ordering.
All in all, eating out in rural Tanzania can range from fine to annoying to refreshingly pleasant. It just depends.
Or, they say in Swahili: Inategemea - which to me is a word that just sounds right, like onomatopoeia for "it depends".
