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As she sat in her corner shop in the narrow alleys of stone town Zanzibar, any passerby could not miss, or resist the smell coming from Sugrabai’s bubbling broth in a steel vessel. It was everything I grew up smelling my mother cook: an undeniable connection to my Indian roots with vivid spices, yet a strong Swahili influence characterized by coastal delicacies. Sugrabai’s “Zanzibari Mix” was truly a testament to the fabric of the South Asian community that had made the Swahili coast their home some two hundred years ago. The mix is something I grew up eating on the streets of the business capital of Tanzania, Dar-es-Salaam, a two-hour boat ride from Zanzibar, five decades after Sugra first started making the mix: The circular “bajias” made out of crushed beans, and the “bateta vadas” made of potato, are originally from my family’s home region of Kutch in India. While the coconut sauce is a Zanzibari influence from the coast, topped with chutneys and toppings with mixed influence. It has been centuries since this dish has evolved, from the time my ancestors, and others alike, arrived as refugees of famine on the shores of East Africa, yet this one dish seems to sum up my identity. Having now lived away from home for five years, it is food that really revives a connection to my childhood when I return. Nothing else really is the same, and nor am I, but my taste buds never seem to be less stimulated. Each bite is like a call home, or rather a reaffirmation of home. But Sugra’s story is very different from mine. Sugra gave up school in fourth grade and spent the rest of her life cooking mix to support her family, together with her sister and other female family members. Her stained “bandhni” outfit, a native fabric from Kutch, is a testament to her hard work and perseverance. She worked day and night selling mix on stalls, until the sixties when she finally opened her little shop, which she runs to date. South Asian- East African delicacies are famous across the coast, but what remains less appreciated are the women who pioneered an era of change for refugees who found a home in a foreign place. The food is now part of daily cuisine on the streets of every major Tanzanian city. In a way, it has woven South Asians into the very identity of the nation, crossing racial and ethnic boundaries, although this has not happened socio-economically. But in some way, women like Sugra have also led the way for future generations of women like myself to look beyond the waters of the Indian Ocean that we saw through our windows every morning; to dream big.