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Liam Hetherington
Liam Hetherington
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55) Dubay Caffé - Mogadishu The Day

55) Dubay Caffé - Mogadishu The Day

Somalia – 05/10/09

I have to admit that I had exceptionally low expectations about this meal. Throughout the year I had been unimpressed by African cuisine, and I felt that food from the strife-torn failed state of Somalia would be if anything worse. Add in the location of this little hole-in-the-wall place in Moss Side and the gangs of lads hanging around on corners and I approached with a heavy heart.

Imagine my surprise then that Dubay Caffé on Claremont Road has now ended up on my ‘visit again’ list. It may not be much, but it’s good! And cheap too!

It is a plain little place, a converted gable-end house with cafeteria-style tables, a small kitchen in the corner, and a television showing the football on ESPN. About the only other decoration was a reproduction of the infamous Carlos Tevez ‘Welcome To Manchester’ poster that so irked Manchester United fans – of which I am one. Cue a bit of banter about football with the friendly chap behind the serving counter. "You ever had Somalian food before?" he asked in a broad Manc accent. "Trust me – you’ll love it!"

The menu is minimal. We went for lamb on the bone, served with roast potatoes and carrots. With this we got the choice of two different sauces: a plain one, and one with mince. And then we had a choice of accompaniment: rice or – surreally enough – spaghetti. We opted for plain sauce and rice, and seeing the size of portion he was dishing out (it took up three metal take-away containers!) decided to only buy the one meal. For a mere £5.00 this looked like good value. But of course the proof of the pudding would be in the eating, so we retired to Paul’s to eat.

And eating showed that this was very good nosh indeed. The lamb fell off the bones with the lightest prodding with a fork. The potatoes and carrots came in large chunks and were well-seasoned and tasty. The rice was fried and delicately spiced with a hint perhaps of cinnamon (I’m guessing here!). And the sauce…? Well, in the other meals I have had from sub-Saharan Africa the rule has always been protein (meat) + starch (some form of pounded yam or cassava) + tomatoey sauce. And these sauces have usually been oily and quite heavy on the chillis. This sauce was not oily at all, it was smooth and light and well-blended, and the heat of it only came tentatively at the back of the throat. In fact it reminded me of something else altogether. "It’s pasta sauce!"

What was this crazy cuisine? Pasta sauce? Spaghetti? A quick check of the very helpful Wikipedia page on Somali cuisine provided some answers. Due to the Italian colonial presence in the south and centre – which lasted up until World War II – pasta (or baasto) remains popular in Somalia. The country is also crazy for popsicle-like jalaato (like the Italian gelato), which was what the kids outside the door had been eating. Another interesting fact was that in the north of the country (which was under British dominion) they have a drink called fiimto - Vimto. Cue a trip to the kitchen to get a glass of blackcurrant cordial!

Somalian cuisine, then, is frankly odd. They combine Italian tastes with those of the Horn of Africa (think Ethiopian), but overlaid with Islamic dietary laws. And it is one hell of an improvement on the food I had tried from West Africa. It is strange that West Africa, the region that experienced European colonialism for the longest period, should produce food that is less tailored for the European palate then Somalia, which saw only partial dominion for only 60 years at most. But Dubay Caffé has won me over. Upon leaving we passed a man selling t-shirts emblazoned with the flags of Somalia or Somaliland (the break-away northern part of the country) from his car. I was almost tempted to buy one…

From journal Around The World In 80 Meals! (part 6)

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