Where to Eat in the Worst Places in the World

Published January 12, 2009 @ 11:33AM PT

It's true, you really can get Chinese food anywhere. In Kabul, the Chinese restaurants served alcohol under the table; the rumor was that some doubled as brothels. (Or, apparently more than a rumor.) There was also a great dumpling restaurant not too far from the CARE office, on the way to Chicken Street.

Panda Chinese restaurant in Khartoum served beer in teapots; there was also a place to get Chinese and Indian in Nyala, in South Darfur, or at least there was a few years ago. We once drove past a Chinese restaurant in Hargeisa, in Somaliland, but I never made it inside. Decent Chinese in Bujumbura and Kampala and Kigali.

Not to mention Thai and Croatian and Lebanese food in Kabul; also some surprisingly good fish in Goma.

(Granted, there were plenty of meals I would just as soon as have skipped - sorghum being close to the top of that particular list.)

A few years ago, Paul Currion at humanitarian.info had the idea for aid worker restaurant reviews, a public service if ever there was one - a guide about where to eat (and where not to eat) in the worst places in the world.

Considering that it was Paul's original idea, he was kind enough to let me repost his original review of K2 restaurant in Nyala, South Darfur. I was there in the spring of 2008, and it's still as Paul described:

"I nearly didn’t make it out of Nyala - not due to insecurity, just due to the UN Humanitarian Air Service booking system. The plane (an 18-seater Beechcraft) took off five minutes after the airport closed, and ended up over Khartoum 3 hours later in some of the worst turbulence I can remember. If I’d had any breakfast I would have lost it, but (as with most things in this world) it made me think of food. I’m therefore launching a new humanitarian initiative: Aidworker Restaurant Reviews.

If you’ve ever done any humanitarian work, you’ll know what I’m talking about. Wherever a substantial number of international aid workers turn up, restaurants appear to provide them with a brief respite from the local hang-tough beef jerky, weevil-infested rice and semi-toxic bean stew. Nyala is no exception, so welcome to K2!

K2 is owned by my good friend Fouad, and is pretty much the only dining avenue for internationals in Nyala, possibly in the whole of Darfur. (People keep telling me there’s an Indian restaurant, but nobody can tell me the name of the place, so I reckon it’s a collective hallucination.)

K2 offers a range of pizza, pasta and cooked meat dishes, all served in a pleasant al fresco location. A thatched roof keeps off the insects to some extent, and there’s a range of table sizes, whether you’re having a leaving party (for the 300th time that year) or a romantic dinner a deux (probably out of desperation).

Let me say this first: the juice cocktail is a winner. A nice mix of fruit, a pulpy texture and just enough ice to help it go down; I had three. Anywhere with juice this good is worth going to, although it can’t compete with Tweety Juice in Khartoum. I started off with an aubergine salad - the dressing was a little tart, but the aubergine itself was nicely done.

We avoided the fish on the menu, since the nearest fresh fish to Nyala is several thousand miles away. I went for a Pizza Rustica, which was quite rustica but not very pizza. For some reason, the Sudanese prefer their bread to be as floury as possible, which meant that pizzas tend to taste as if they’re not fully cooked. I wasn’t complaining, as I believe that it was real cheese instead of la vache qui rit.

So overall, my night out at K2 was a winner - I would suggest that you make your way there if you’re in Nyala, but that’s pretty much guaranteed.

[UPDATE: Fouad has just told me that the profits from K2 go to a local non-profit venture working on livelihood improvements for vulnerable people in Nyala, another good reason for eating there.]"

If anyone has any other restaurant suggestions, in Darfur or further afield, would love to hear.

[Panda Chinese restaurant in Khartoum - Photo from the New York Times]

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Comments (18)

I have heard rumors of a faux Mexican restaurant run by Australians in Kabul. Can anyone confirm?

Posted by Transitionl... . on 01/12/2009 @ 12:12PM PT
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If you're choosing your "most dangerous" places by food, definitely go to Lebanon. If Lebanon is too safe, the Shwarma in the Palestinian Territories totally kicks ass, as well.

Northern Uganda isn't particularly unsafe, but my staple when I'm in Gulu is the spaghetti bolognese at Hotel Kakanyero. I'd pay for that at any restaurant in the world.

Posted by Nathaniel Whittemore on 01/12/2009 @ 12:35PM PT
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Fish in such places might be raised on a local farm, so worth asking.

Posted by Natasha Chart on 01/12/2009 @ 03:32PM PT
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I had some of the best carrot cake I've ever had - anywhere - at the AFEX OCHA camp in Juba, south Sudan. Truly moist and yummy, think there was even cream cheese in the frosting. Made me wonder why they couldn't do that in Kampala if they did that in Juba.

Posted by Scarlett Lion on 01/12/2009 @ 03:32PM PT
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Yeah, well here in WV in apple-growing country, you can buy frozen juice from China, as well as rabbit -- yes, we have a lot of rabbits, too.

Posted by nicole taggart on 01/12/2009 @ 04:01PM PT
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According to the New York Times, there was a Mexican restaurant in Kabul called La Cantina, at least as of 2007 -

http://travel.nytimes.com/travel/guides/asia/afghanistan/kabul/restaurants.html

Anyone with more up-to-date information?

MBK

Posted by Michael Bear on 01/12/2009 @ 04:46PM PT
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Just so you know, the places that you call "worst places in the world" are actually places that other people call "home." There are people who are born and raised there.

They don't have the luxury that you have to blog and make judgmental statements about other countries that people live in.

Posted by J D on 01/12/2009 @ 06:06PM PT
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JD,

True enough -- tho, that said, I'll continue to use the term, as I do think that Afghanistan, Somalia and other, similar conflicts are the worst places in the world; not so much for aid workers, tho it's not walk in the park, but precisely for the people who live there.

MBK

Posted by Michael Bear on 01/12/2009 @ 06:13PM PT
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Well said JD.. I wondered the same thing when I saw the title. It's perhaps unsafe or dangerous but not the "worst place".

Posted by Raman V on 01/12/2009 @ 06:19PM PT
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Mike,

You did not grow up in Afghanistan and Somalia. It is not your home. Do you know the people, the culture, the art, the history, the religions, the love stories, the poetry, the literature, the philosophers, etc.?

One of the greatest poets who has ever lived was born in Afghanistan. His name was Jalaluddin Rumi. Look him up.

"Even if this world burns up, hidden harps will still play here." - Rumi, 13th century.

Posted by J D on 01/12/2009 @ 06:41PM PT
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My favorite Rumi quote:

"The story of my life can be told in three words: I was raw, I was cooked, I was consumed".

Especially as it's appropos of this post.

Posted by Michael Bear on 01/12/2009 @ 06:49PM PT
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I can safely say Michael didn't mean "worst places in the world" in any cultural sense.

Objectively, if we're talking about the Human Development Indicators (life expectancy, education and standard of living) as well as things like food security and gender equality, not to mention good governance, the places Michael listed really are among the worst in the world.

That's not a reflection on any the population or any (nonexistent) "inherent characteristics" but it is a reflection of, well, the current material conditions.

One can have great respect for a place and for its people and still understand that serious work needs to be done. In fact, if Michael didn't respect the people of "the worst places" he would just write them off as beyond hope, rather than spend his life working with them to build better futures.

Posted by Transitionl... . on 01/12/2009 @ 07:23PM PT
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Just a quick note, to thank Transition Land -- one of my many failings is that I sometimes lose site of the forest for the trees, and a much better way to respond to the legitimate issue raised by JD and Raman would have been to write as Transition Land did.

MBK

Posted by Michael Bear on 01/12/2009 @ 07:47PM PT
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Funny post.

1/ You title it "where to eat in the worst places in the world", and then start where to get booze in Kabul and Nyala.. hahaha...
Priorities straight... :-))

2/ I rarely get sick in the stomach. Very very rarely get sick. Once doing a blood test in Belgium, the doctor looked at me and said 'what do you do for a job. Your blood contains the whole encyclopedia of the existing anti-bodies'.
However, despite that.. I land in Ethiopia, and 4 hours later hang over the toilet, with the worst worst worst diarrhae ever. I mean blood and the rest.
Several of my team ended up at a drip in hospital.
While there are plenty of places to eat safely, a guide to 'where to avoid' in ETH would be nice!

And please extend your list of where to find booze...! Way to much of our spare time has been spent on finding booze. We want to surf the internet, not negotiate half watered down vodka through 15,000 middle men! We want the real stuff! ;-)

Peter

Posted by Peter Casier on 01/13/2009 @ 12:24AM PT
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I do vividly remember the blackmarket Asmara Dry Gin from Khartoum, which can also be used to strip paint, or varnish,

MBK

Posted by Michael Bear on 01/13/2009 @ 12:40AM PT
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Ahh, I remember the Chinese dumpling places in Kabul! When they closed down and deported the, ahem, waitresses back in 2006 Pajhwok Afghan News reported this story:
http://www.pajhwok.com/viewstory.asp?lng=eng&id=13937 which still cracks me up for its references to the Chinese prostitutes as "voluptuous women".Kabul did manage to get some good places right before I left - Taverna du Liban, a French bakery in Shahr-e Naw, and the 7th floor buffet in the Safi Landmark. But still no soul food shack (though AFC - Afghan Fried Chicken was a worthy competitor, with its faux chrome interior and cartoon fowl logo).

Posted by Brandy Bauer on 01/13/2009 @ 03:27AM PT
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The Indian restaurant in Nyala has a nice courtyard and the food is quite good. Also doubles as a guesthouse. Not sure if it's still there. I forgot the name too (it's just called 'Indian Restaurant' on the map too). It's on the other side of town though so lacks the accessibility of K2 and 'the Lebanese' and was difficult to get a taxi from if you hadn't arranged that earlier.

http://www.humanitarianinfo.org/darfur/uploads/maps/Town/Southern%20Darfur_Nyala%20Town%20Plan%20with%20Locations%20of%20Organization_A3_22Oct05.pdf

Posted by Kwok Lee on 01/14/2009 @ 03:09PM PT
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<i>Just so you know, the places that you call "worst places in the world"
are actually places that other people call "home." There are people
who are born and raised there.</i>

Just so you know, the people who were born and raised there often think that the living conditions in their home could do with some improvement as well.

Posted by Paul Currion on 01/19/2009 @ 10:27PM PT
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Michael has worked for NGOs in Afghanistan, across east and central Africa, and Iraq. Prior to going overseas, he worked on a project providing assistance to the United Nations on the application of International Humanitarian Law to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict.