Comoros

Spice-island cuisine blending Swahili, Arab and French notes: coconut milk, cassava leaves and vanilla-scented lobster. That is the short version of what the Comoros cooks. Look for Langouste à la vanille (spiny lobster in vanilla-scented butter sauce, celebratory specialty), Mataba (cassava leaves slow-cooked in coconut milk, often with tuna) and Vanille des Comores (hand-pollinated cured vanilla pods, a mainstay of the island economy). Spiny lobster in a vanilla cream sauce, built from the archipelago’s two luxury products, reef lobster and cured vanilla. This atlas has 21 Comoros dishes catalogued below, from everyday cooking to food kept for festivals and special occasions.