Swahili Pilau
One-pot spiced rice where beef or chicken is browned with onions until deep caramel-brown, then simmered with cardamom, cloves, cinnamon, pepper and garlic until every grain is stained mahogany.
HOW TO IDENTIFY IT
Real pilau rice is uniformly brown - never yellow (that's biryani's saffron cousin) - with whole spices you'll meet as you eat. The smell of frying onions and masala is the tell from a street away.
CULTURE & KITCHEN
The celebratory dish of Zanzibar: weddings, Eid, homecomings and Friday family lunches. Pilau masala blends are sold by every spice vendor, and every family swears theirs is the reason guests overeat.