TALKING TIME
WE ARE TALKING TO: Jambo restaurant
The African Experience!
‘
Jambo’ means “hello” in Swahili.
This very common courtesy phrase represents the Jambo Restaurant and
if we could add one more word, it would be – delicious!
Jambo Restaurant is situated in Bergstrasse - Uetikon am See which is
Goldküste Zurich see. I had passed the building several times not
knowing it was housing an African restaurant. It was only when my neighbor
mentioned something about a restaurant that served zebra and impala meat
and went on telling my how tasty the food was, that I found out that “Afrika
liegt auch am Zurisee.” So I decided to talk with to the owners
of this exotically restaurant. 
Jaswant Freitag is a tall and elegant
Kenyan lady who does all the cooking while her husband Alfred Freitag,
a native Swiss, is responsible for serving the guests. Both husband and
wife radiate kindness and warmth so you will no doubt feel welcome. The
restaurant’s environment is meant to create the illusion that you
are entering a little part of Africa with strong reminiscence of how
I imagine the colors of the African Savannah would be like. A warm yellow
and orange wall painting captures the silhouettes of wandering elephants
and strengthens the feeling that I am ready to explore what African food
is all about.
Jaswant Freitag: I was born and raised in Kenya and it is from my mother
and grandmother that I learned the food craft. My grandmother was truly
a magnificent cook. I learned from her the secret of the spices after
wandering with her among the many food markets; I received first hand
knowledge about good quality of fruits, vegetables, spices and meat.
My Grandmother made her own spices and so do I today.
When asked if she misses Kenya –
JF: I miss the people, my family and the climate.
Here in Switzerland you can go up to two weeks without seeing the sun,
but I am not complaining.
I have so much work to do so I don’t get too much time to sit down
and miss home. On the other hand with this restaurant where I constantly
is surrounding myself with the scent of my homeland - that makes my family
and country somehow constantly present.
Running a restaurant is no cakewalk. Both have two jobs. One daytime
job and then they go straight to the restaurant. That’s 15 hours
a day but Frau Freitag is still smiling:
JF: Slowly but surly it grows. There are still too
many people that don’t
know about us and Swiss people are very suspicious, so it takes time.
But people who have already been in Africa, they enjoy very much coming
to the Jambo - and the feedback we are getting from people, who have
actually been here and tried our dishes, are really positive. When customers
say that they have enjoyed an evening with us it is so rewarding and
makes it all worthwhile.
Africa is housing hundreds of tribes, ethnic and social groups. The African
dishes are as diverse as Africa’s population and its history. The
outside influence came from travelers, traders, invaders and immigrants.
The diversity and the distinctiveness of the African people and its food
can in many ways be traced in Jaswante Freitag’s dishes. The steamed
cooked rice and the different spices brought in by the Arabs. The highly
aromatic curry dishes, reminds you of the strong Indian presences two
hundreds years ago. Then you have the meat: have you ever heard about
a Kudu, Springbok and Impala? That’s not outside influence but
truly genuine meat from Africa!
J.F: The dishes I make are mainly from East Africa
but on Saturdays we have a buffet and then I serve food from north, south,
west and east.
I don’t want to limit my self to only make Kenyan food because
there is so much to taste from my continent! So here you can eat hummus
and couscous from the North and Samoosa from the South (a small triangular-shaped
pie, filled with spices,
vegetables and minced meat that has been deep fried in sunflower oil).
Q: I hear that you serve Zebra filet with garlic sauce and Manioc*
and Antelope meat - how is that received by you customers?
J.F:
I want to make
authentic African food, that is why I import spices from Tanzania and
that is why I serve African meat to my customers. We serve meat from
four different African animals: Kudu, Zebra, the Springbok, and the Impala.
All of these animals are flourishing in South East Africa and their meat
is very tasty, tender and contains little fat. The Impala, Springbok
and the Kudu eat grass and leaves that gives their meat a very aromatic
taste. The meat from the Zebra, which I prefer, is very special since
it is surprisingly white and tender.
My experience until now is that our customers would very much like to
try African meat. The Reason I think is that when they come here they
expect something totally different than French or Italian food - They
want to explore something new and challenge their taste buds.
Jaswante Freitag means business when she says that she wants to serve
her customers a piece of Africa.
J.F: You don’t get Swiss herbal tea here. That is something you
can get every where else. Instead we offer coriander tea or Date tea
with its distinctive fragrance and their attributed medical effects.
The coffee and tea has a higher price range, but in return you taste
something new. This goes also for the wine. We serve Wine only from South
Africa, which I think is up there with the rest of what is considered
good wines. If our customers prefer beer, we serve African beer like
Castle Lager (South Africa), Casablanca Beer (Morocco) and Mongozo Beer*(Netherlands).
Mangozo bier you can get with coconut and banana flavor. The beer with
the banana flavor is truly an East African beer. It is the traditional
beer of the Masai people of Kenya and Tanzania. They call the banana
bier - “Mbege”.
Talking with Jaswante Freitag I understood that Jambo Restaurant is her
passion and with passion and skill she is showing the trademarks of the
African cuisine – the stews made with plantains, coconut, chicken
and sweet potato or chicken and peanuts. Everything from the ingredients
to the beverage is thought through and that shows. The warm and cozy
atmosphere, the smell of curry stew and other mysterious spicy dishes
made me yearn for food- but what would the kitchen recommend?
J.F: What’s important when you are dining
here is that you have time. African food is really slow food. It is not
just frying something
in the pan for a few minutes. In Africa you cook and that takes time
and patience if you want your meat to be tender and tasty. But if I were
to recommend something I would say it all depends on what you prefer:
fish, meat or vegetarian.
For a vegetarian main dish I would recommend Lentil Salad and for dessert
Matoke (cooked banana) .For meat lovers I would recommend Zebra as main
dish. For those who prefer fish, I would choose Bacchia (vegetables ball)
and Black tigers in Mango sauce!
Bon appétit!
*Mangozo beer meaning “to your health” is
a coconut beer traditionally brewed by the Chokwe people (who lives scattered
over Angola,
Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo). The recipe however ended
up in the Netherlands where the Beer is today commerically produced. Mongozo
uses ingredients purchased from farmers in developing countries for fair
price.
*Manioc or called Cassava, Yuca, Mogo or Mandioca – a woody shrub
f rom the spurge family – Is extensively cultivated as an annual
crop in tropical and subtropical regions for its edible starchy tuberous
root and a major source of carbohydrates.
PREVIOUS TALKS:
A
PLACE 4 US
SUZIE O`REILLY
MARI
KRÅKENES
SUSANNE
WELLE SIEGELER
Der
Hausfrauen- und
Hausmännergewerkschaft
CYNTHIA
BÖSCHENSTEIN
MIA
STALDER
Also this month read about:
HarmoS was sagen die Parteien?
HarmoS - A Parents Perspective.
Taste of Africa in Foodtime.
Meat the Beast.
The Flu! What do i Do?
Autumn Reunion in Storytime.
Take care of yourself.