While mzungus (foreigners) in Arusha can usually be found in or around their hotels, a walk across the city revealed to me where they also tend to hang out: the strip mall. Of course, Arusha’s strip mall is quite different from what I’m used to, there is no doubt that finding a place to eat there was a lot easier for us mzungus. I opted for a place called Empire Sports Bar which is a great place to watch sports while betting on sites like rolet online.

I should also point out here that I didn’t find one McDonald’s in Tanzania and my guide on Kilimanjaro had no idea what McDonald’s was. I am not a McDonald’s fan, but have to admit I had a craving for a burger that ordinarily could have been satisfied by fast food. Instead, I threw my cards in with Empire Sports Bar and hoped for the best.

I started out with a Safari Beer because although I didn’t go on a safari, I was curious what it would taste like. It tasted good, especially after a long walk across a dirty city. I’m sure it is meant more for long drives across pristine savanna, but I take what I can get.

For my meal, I ordered the Bacon Cheeseburger, and although I rarely do this abroad for fear of ruining a dish, I got it without onions. It didn’t mention any other veggies, so I figured I was safe. It also came with a side of fries/chips. When it arrived, my desire to avoid onions was squashed and I found it had also been loaded with other veggies. But I was in Tanzania, so I let it slide. And it looked delicious otherwise, until I bit into it. At that moment I wasn’t sure if I was eating sawdust colored brown and lumped into patty form or actual beef. Seriously, it was so dry and flavorless.

I tried improving the burger with a combination of Tanzanian ketchup and chili sauce, but it was to no avail. The burger was a loss and no matter how good the cheese, bacon or fries were, there was no saving the core of the meal.

Which is sad, because this was not a meal catering to locals, in which case I would have given Empire Sports Bar a break. No, this was a meal catering to mzungus like me and in that regard it sadly failed.

While I never felt unsafe in Arusha, I was told it wasn’t the kind of city to walk around in at night. This proved to be difficult when it came to dinner, because I was staying in a hotel on the outskirts of the city. This meant my eating options were limited if I wanted to avoid getting mugged (which I’m still not sure was an actual possibility). Yet, there were a couple restaurants near my hotel that catered to foreigners like myself. The prices were steeper than the local places in the city, but you can’t put a price on safety. Or something like that. On my first night in Arusha, I opted for The Blue Heron.

This place had an awesome garden area with cozy table and chair covers to sit at and a wood-fired oven for cooking up pizzas. I wasn’t in a rush, so I started things off with an ice cold Serengeti Beer. As I sipped away, I logged into their wireless internet and just took in The Blue Heron’s comfortable atmosphere. As I looked at the menu, I realized the prices were not simply for the food, but for the setting as well. I’m normally against this, but after climbing a mountain and spending a couple of days in the hustle bustle of Moshi and Arusha, simply chilling out was very welcome.

I ended up ordering their margherita pizza, which was a vast improvement from the pizza I had tackled at The Coffee Shop. The cheese had been nicely melted and the sauce and basil flavoring were immediately welcome on my tongue. The crust was still well-short of being great, but honestly beggars can’t be choosers. I was eating good pizza. In Tanzania. And it made me happy.

I ate my pizza slowly, not simply to enjoy its goodness, but also to take in the atmosphere of The Blue Heron. I considered ordering another beer to extend my stay, but I didn’t want to push my luck with the dangers of Arusha too late into the evening. I still don’t understand how it could get dangerous in a place that felt so safe during the day, but at least those supposed dangers led me to some decent pizza near my hotel.

As some of you loyal followers of mine may or may not know, I recently took a stroll to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro. The trip included a cook who made some pretty impressive camping food, considering porters were carrying everything. Inevitably, some of the food didn’t fit into my unvegan eating habits, but I ate them anyway, because this was not about eating what I wanted, but about survival in a sense. These were things like cucumber soup, zucchini soup and veggie sauce on pasta. No, they didn’t make we want to eat veggies, but they did hammer home the lesson that hunger truly is the best spice.

There were some highlights though. One day we had some delicious grilled cheeses for lunch. I honestly don’t know what made these grilled cheeses so good. Maybe it was the fact that they were the first cheese I had eaten since arriving in Tanzania. Or maybe it was that they provided a kind of warmth on a cold day that vegetable soup simply couldn’t offer. Or perhaps it was that they were perfectly browned on both sides, the cheese was nice and melty and there is just something awesome about eating grilled cheeses on the side of Kilimanjaro.

Another great meal was “Chips Chicken.” This is basically fries and chicken, and it turns out that this is one of Tanzania’s most popular dishes. I ended up seeing this at just about every local restaurant afterwards and although it may have been quite different down at ground level, the dish definitely pleased us on the mountainside. It was accompanied by some Cole slaw that I avoided, but only because I felt the sugars and protein provided by the rest of the meal could power me up for the remainder of the day.

But nothing beats the final meal of Curried Chicken and Banana Stew. This was another local dish and was served to us on our last day, after coming back down the mountain. In it was half of a chicken from a local village. In the US we call that free range, in Tanzania they simply call that chicken (this is not to say that they don’t have factory farms in Tanzania, I just thinkthose are the chickens they distinguish, rather than the natural ones).What was so interesting about this dish was the use of bananas, which acted as a sort of potato instead of banana. This is because the banana was not yet ripe and not sweet, so it ended up a bit hard and soaked in the flavor of the curry and stew rather than adding a sweet flavor. Essentially, it acted like a potato rather than a banana. Also, I’m sure the stew tasted even better because it marked the end of an epic six-day journey.

The journey was awesome, and I’m glad it gave me an opportunity to try out some interesting new food and local specialties.