On the Swahili coast (Zanzibar, Mombasa, Lamu, Dar es Salaam), meals are built around a base of fragrant rice (pilau, biriani) accompanied by fish or meat in sauce, often eaten with the right hand from a shared large platter. Socializing happens on the baraza, the stone bench in front of the house where people sit to drink cardamom coffee and nibble on coconut sweets. Flavors blend spices from Arabia and India brought by dhows (clove, cardamom, cumin) with coconut milk, tamarind, and local citrus.

Zanzibar was the world's top producer of cloves; along with cardamom, cumin, and cinnamon, these spices brought by Indian Ocean trade define Swahili pilau. It is precisely this cultural blending — Arab, Indian, African — that Allen spent his life studying in the poetry and cuisine of the coast.