Djibouti
A Somali-Afar-Yemeni crossroads on the Red Sea, where spiced lamb-and-rice stew meets the French baguette.
Djibouti eats at a crossroads. The national dish is skoudehkaris, lamb and rice slow-cooked with cardamom and cinnamon until the spice perfumes the whole pot — Yemeni, Somali and Afar cooking folded into one plate. Beside it comes fah-fah, a fiery goat or camel stew you scoop up with torn pieces of spongy lahoh pancake.
The Red Sea does the rest — grilled fish landed that morning along the coast. And then, unmistakably, France: baguettes and pavement cafés in Djibouti City, a colonial habit that never left. Afternoons slow right down for khat, the mildly narcotic leaf chewed in shaded rooms while the heat passes, glasses of strong spiced shaah tea poured alongside. A small country with a lot of flavours crossing through it.
- Skoudehkaris (spiced lamb-and-rice stew)
- Fah-fah (spicy goat or camel stew)
- Lahoh (spongy fermented flatbread)
- Sabayad (flaky layered flatbread)
- Grilled Red Sea fish
- Sambusa (meat samosa)
- Shaah (spiced tea)
