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New Jersey Notebook: ‘Swahili Village Restaurant’ in New Jersey
Swahili Village restaurant in Newark, New Jersey in this picture taken on July 25, 2026.
What you need to know:
- Tusker beer is available at just $9 (Sh1,164) while the local lagers cost a dollar or two less.
- Some New Jersey residents have grumbled about New York getting naming privileges for the stadium.
In New Jersey
Should you find yourself in Newark and want some authentic East African food, you can try the Swahili Village Restaurant at the intersection of Mulberry Street and Centre Street.
Once there, you can order ‘mbuzi choma’, ‘karanga’, ‘mchuzi’ ‘kuku choma’, ‘samaki’, ‘bhajia’, samosa, ‘sukuma wiki’ and ‘kachumbari’.
Inside the Swahili Village restaurant in Newark, New Jersey in this picture taken on July 25, 2026.
No Swahili is spoken here, though, and you are more likely to be served by a Brazilian or Mexican waiter.
It is a popular place with Africans and South Americans. Food will cost you between $30 (Sh3,882) and $40 (Sh5,176). Tusker beer is available at just $9 (Sh1,164) while the local lagers cost a dollar or two less. It is run by a Kenyan.
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New Jersey residents are not amused by their stadium name
Fifa, in their wisdom, decided to name all the 16 World Cup venues after their locations. Rather use local names known by Americans for the stadiums, they mostly bear names of corporate sponsors.
So, MetLife Stadium, for this World Cup, has been renamed New York-New Jersey Stadium. The trouble, though, is that MetLife Stadium is located in New Jersey, not in New York.
Some New Jersey residents have grumbled about New York getting naming privileges for a stadium that is not in their state. Worldwide, the state of New York and the city of New York are generally better known than New Jersey. Locals find this reasoning by Fifa awkward.
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Roaming charges for Kenyan phone numbers are friendly
Back in the day, few Kenyans dared to switch on their local phone numbers while they were abroad. Receiving a telephone call from Kenya would cost hundreds of shillings a minute. It was doubly so for making a call.
Now, the charges are much friendlier and a visiting Kenyan here in New York, New Jersey may even consider using their Kenyan phone numbers rather than acquiring a local one.
Calling Kenya on local roaming costs roughly Sh20 per minute while receiving calls costs Sh10 per minute, and sending a text message costs Sh5 per message. Receiving text messages seems to be free of charge. Data will cost you Sh10 for every megabyte of data used.
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