By +Caroline Anande Uliwa @CarolAnande-Instagram, @CarolAnande-Twitter @CarolAnande-Facebook
This March in celebrating women, I've interviewed several women making examplery strides in their careers, here's a couple in the Restaurant business, employing more than 90% local staff & ingredients.
Velisa Delfowse' Ingleton the woman behind VELISA's Jamaican Restaurant
It’s a sunny Saturday afternoon, green fences together with the sun gleaming on a caramel stone peppered earth road. Wake a traverse that leaves room for idle thought, Velisa’s Restaurant located in Mbezi Beach, Dar es Salaam. With its yellow & green flowers painted on the gate wall, ushers you in to a nostalgic welcome.
The restaurant aptly named after the owner Velisa Delfowse’Ingleton, is inside her beautiful home specifically at the front-yard overlooking the Indian Ocean. What with the current soaring humid temperatures of the city, Velisa’s healthy vegetation next to the breeze & view of the beach come as a welcome reprise.
Velisa’s offers Jamaican cuisine and yes Velisa is from Jamaica. She came to Tanzania and opened this restaurant back in 2011. “I came to Tanzania cause when President Kikwete came to Jamaica in 2010, he invited Jamaicans to invest in Tanzania…”-Velisa D. Ingleton
She certainly headed the call and present the restaurant is one of a couple serving caribbean cuisine in the city. It’s idyllic setting next to the beach boasts of an outdoor in rustic minimalist decor; reflected in its iron wrought chairs and these mini sculptures. Not forgetting these grey tile slab table mats, that fit with effortless elegance on their table setting.
It was late afternoon, I was really there to enjoy their beach front which is always pristine as the staff make sure to clean it. I therefore requested to sit outside so a chair and table was pulled out, then I proceeded to order a mock-tail.
It was a mix of carrot, mango & pineapple fresh fruit blended on the spot. I was glad the juice didn’t come with any added sugar so I could really taste the carrot, the lilting taste of ‘embe-dodo’ which were in season, as well the pineapple that gave it a smooth texture.
Noticing the fishermen pull the net, children playing, men on horseback offering you to come along for a ride. The beach calm was doing its magic and soon I was ordering a light meal of ‘crunch calamari octopus salad with house tartar tamarind sauce & market veggies on organic lettuce’.
Soon the meal arrived, looking pleasing to the eye. What with the lacy carrots popping that orange so well against the cream green of the cucumbers, cut in the same style. I thoroughly enjoyed that salad it had nuances that spoke of home gourmet food.
Velisa shares of her passion with food, “I actually opened just as a hobby, as a sideline, a restaurant back in Jamaica many years ago. And it won many awards, I didn’t know that I could cook. My core business was actually in construction (she’s a qualified civil engineer). Friends had told me that they really liked my food, that it was quite different and prompted me to open a restaurant in Jamaica…it was open for like 3 and a half years, then I just got tired and closed it. Then I started my retirement I went to Southeast Asia by myself, always wanted to go there."
She got back after four months and in 2010 was at the same venue where our previous president Dk. Jakaya Kikwete, was prompting Jamaican businessmen/women to come and invest in Tanzania. After which she made a bold move to pack up and move to Dar es Salaam, she relays she had always wanted to come to Africa she just didn’t know which country.
Based on my salad plate which demanded I go through it slowly. As the tastes were vibrant on every corner, weird right after all it’s just a salad. However even whilst crunching the lettuce leaves at times, a pop of cardamon would visit the tongue. Plus the neat balance of acid and creamy provided by the tamarind tartar sauce together with the marination that went into those calamari/octopus rings. Means I am glad Velisa, chose Tanzania.
Pop by if in Dar craving some homey Jamaican food, which isn’t that far from our own tropical cuisine. The prices here are middle range, my bill came to 21,000 Tshs, the service on the other hand could improve though the waiter ‘Richard’ was ok.
Article was first published in the East African newspaper http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/magazine/Taste-of-Jamaican-food-on-Dar-es-Salaam-beach/434746-3844816-yuypqr/index.html
Sandra Mulokozi, the woman behind Black Tomato
You know the idiom ‘best thing since slice bread,' I never really got it. Until I was biting into this delicious grilled steak, ciabatta brown bread sandwich. Where I thought yes, as really what if they never invented sliced bread?
Then I certainly wouldn’t be salivating on this tasty gooey barbecue sauce, that’s talking in seductive tones with the lightly fried onions in my mouth. I wouldn’t be marvelling at the seamless way the avocados, lettuce and grilled steak are telling me to keep on biting and relish the experience.
Black Tomato has seamlessly slipped into Dar-terian conversations with regard to tasteful lunch dates. Currently situated at the Oysterbay shopping centre in Dar es Salaam, nestled close to a big ‘Mkuyu’ tree where these cute ‘vitenge’ chairs live. It was here that I grabbed a chat with Sandra Mulokozi the co-owner & manager of Black Tomato on her journey.
“So a friend of mine Rachel Kessy started an initiative ‘Makutano’ their motto was ‘one less plastic bag’ she called me out of the blue in 2010 said ‘look we’re opening this space, we’ve rented a house in Oysterbay…we want someone to rent the café at the centre of it’ she was like you’ve always wanted to open an eatery, why not put a tender.…I still never dreamed we’d get it. I mean some of the other applicants already had running restaurants, I had never run a restaurant before.” Sandra
Black Tomato opened its doors to the public back in Sept 2010 at the then ‘Makutano’ house. Sandra’s passion for good coffee & food is witnessed in her dedication to the restaurant where she works full time. “In the beginning our menu was quite small we had three sandwiches, three salads, the cheese meats, breads & the snap basket. ..It grew, mostly from me. I like food (she laughs) we have a breakfast menu, the sandwich menu has increased…”
Initially her menu was orchestrated by a professional chef Anna Maria Wolundrio, who is a friend from her days working in the corporate world. Their menu today still has this touch of simple gourmet, that marries healthy & tasty very well. For instance my order on this day which came with the option of either potato or sweet potato fries.
I chose the latter, you know how sweet potatoes are healthy I swear on this occasion they were also sinfully delicious. I kid you not, the next day I went to the market and bought sweet potatoes. Later in my attempt to reinvent Black Tomato’s chips, let’s just say I had some form of black sweet potato crisps.
The journey that delivers Black Tomato restaurant can inspire other women & young entrepreneurs alike. Sandra began by following her gut she quit her job in the corporate world and went all in for her passion. Despite the challenges she’s faced, like the closing of the Makutano house in Sept’12 that forced the young restaurant of less than 2 years to move. As well the closing down of the restaurant’s second branch in May’16, due to the decline of the economy particularly the drop of the TSHS to the US$ since the pre-election frenzy.  |
| The entrance of the eatery, that painting is by local artist Thobias Minzi |
I love this eatery for its authentic tasty fresh food plus its décor that loves local artisans (Black Tomato has hosted various art exhibition from local artists as well its furniture and art on the wall is all made in Tanzania) plus the service is friendly.
Article first published in The East African newspaper http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/magazine/Enjoying-a-sandwich-at-the-Black-Tomato/434746-3817600-nxvmfd/index.html
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