Alternate Names For Food

When buying food in Kenya, an item can have many different names depending on who you are buying from.

Legumes:

American	British	Swahili	Indian
garbanzos	grams	dengu	channa
lentil	lentil		masoor
moong	green gram		mug
	black gram		urad
cow peas	cow gram	kunde	lobhia
	red gram		toovar or arhar
kidney beans	kidney beans	maharagwe	rajma
soya	soya	njegere
split peas			dhal

Vegetables:

American	British	Swahili	Indian
cabbage	cabbage	kabichi	gobi
carrots	carrots	karoti	gajar
cauliflower	cauliflower	kolifari	fluawer
eggplant	brinjals	biringani
garlic	garlic	kitinguu sau mu	lasan
mushrooms	mushrooms	kiyoga
onions	onions	kitinguu
peas	peas	njegera
bell pepper (sweet)	bell pepper (sweet)	pili pili tamu	capsicum
red (hot) pepper	red (hot) pepper	pili pili hoho (kali)	mirchi
potatoes	potatoes	viazi
sweet potatoes	sweet potatoes	viazi vitamu
tomato	tomato	nyanya
kale		sukuma wiki

Fruit:

American	British	Swahili	Indian
apples	apple	tofaa
avacado	avacado	parachichi
banana	banana	ndizi
coconut	coconut	nazi
custard apple	custard apple	tope tope
gooseberry	gooseberry	mboni
guava	guava	pera (ma)
jackfruit	jackfruit	fenesi
lemon	lemon	limau
lime	lime	ndimu
mango	mango	embe (ma)
orange	orange	chungwa (ma)
papaya	papaya	papai or paw paw
passion fruit	passion fruit	matunda
pineapple	pineapple	nanasi (ma)
plum	plum	tunda kama zambarau

Spices and Flour:

American	British	Swahili	Indian
cloves	cloves	karafu
ginger	ginger	tangawizi
cinnamon	cinnamon	mdalasini
salt	salt	chumvi
sugar	sugar	sukari
black pepper	black pepper	pili pili manga
white flour	white flour	unga wa ungano
wheat flour	wheat flour	unga wa ungano (atta)
maize flour	maize flour	unga wa mahindi
celantro			dania