Tanzanian pilau rice is often difficult to separate from its indian roots. However, when it comes to african cuisine, pilau is east africa's ubiquitous rice dish and it often extends beyond its coastline from zanzibar into the indian ocean islands such as mauritius. Tanzanian pilau has slight nuances from its indian counterpart. Other pilau recipes will often include bay leaves, saffron, ground coriander seed, and turmeric, however, tanzanian pilau recipes often use 5 distinct spices to make the pilau masala: black peppercorns, cloves, cumin, cardamom, and cinnamon. Spices, especially cloves, are used more generously in tanzania. In the horn of africa, cardamom is much more popular. Pilau can be made as a simple vegetable dish or can be combined with beef, lamb or chicken to produce a full one-pot meal. When made as a whole pot meal, sometimes with the addition of tomatoes, the outcome is very similar to the west african counterpart rice dish, jollof. However, the two meals are not the same and the indian spices used in east africa makes this dish distinctively different from jollof rice. Pilau is much more comparable to the somali bariis iskukaris.
