Roasting • black pepper • butter • cayenne pepper or red pepper • cilantro • garlic • oysters • parsley • salt • tabasco sauce • white wine • Eastern Africa • Kenya
Oysters Mombasa
Whether or not the Swahili and other African peoples of the Eastern African coast traditionally ate oysters does not seem to be well documented. 
There are very few recipes for oysters in African cookbooks, and those that there are come from Western Africa. Thus, it seems possible that Oysters Mombasa originated among expatriates in Africa during the era of British colonialism in Kenya. Mombasa, an island-port city on the Indian ocean, served as the gateway to the “white highlands” and “Happy Valley” of Kenya for European settlers arriving by ship. It’s easy to imagine jazz-age European elites eating oysters like this in Mombasa’s hotels and restaurants. To this day, Kenyan oysters are featured on the menus of restaurants and resorts, mostly frequented by tourists, along the Kenyan coast.
Oysters Mombasa Recipe
Kenyan oysters are featured on the menus of restaurants and resorts, mostly frequented by tourists, along the Kenyan coast.
Ingredients
½ cup butter
3 garlic cloves, finely minced
1 bunch of parsley or cilantro, chopped
African Hot Sauce or Piri-Piri (Pili-Pili) sauce or Tabasco sauce (or similar) sauce, to taste
½ cup white wine
salt, black pepper, and cayenne pepper or red pepper (to taste)
24 fresh oysters, cleaned and left on the half shell
Instructions
1
Preheat oven to 350° F.
2
Prepare sauce: melt butter in a saucepan. Add garlic and parsley (or cilantro). Sauté for a few minutes. Add hot sauce, wine, salt, and pepper. Remove from heat.
3
Arrange the oysters on a baking sheet. Drizzle a spoonful of sauce over each oyster.
4
Bake oysters for six to eight minutes in the heated oven. Serve immediately with lemon wedges and remaining sauce or additional hot sauce on the side.
Ingredients
½ cup butter
3 garlic cloves, finely minced
1 bunch of parsley or cilantro, chopped
African Hot Sauce or Piri-Piri (Pili-Pili) sauce or Tabasco sauce (or similar) sauce, to taste
½ cup white wine
salt, black pepper, and cayenne pepper or red pepper (to taste)
24 fresh oysters, cleaned and left on the half shell
Directions
1
Preheat oven to 350° F.
2
Prepare sauce: melt butter in a saucepan. Add garlic and parsley (or cilantro). Sauté for a few minutes. Add hot sauce, wine, salt, and pepper. Remove from heat.
3
Arrange the oysters on a baking sheet. Drizzle a spoonful of sauce over each oyster.
4
Bake oysters for six to eight minutes in the heated oven. Serve immediately with lemon wedges and remaining sauce or additional hot sauce on the side.
(This recipe adapted from Bea Sandler‘s The African Cookbook.)
Mombasa is Kenya’s second-largest city and its chief port. For centuries before the city was visited by Vasco da Gama in 1498, Mombasa was a center of the Arab slave and ivory trades. It was part of the Portuguese empire during the 1500s and 1600s, and was then ruled by Oman, Zanzibar, and finally Great Britain until Kenyan independence. Fort Jesus, built by the Portuguese, was often the center of violent struggles for power and is still a landmark on the city’s waterfront.