More for Less

On our return from Zanzibar to Dar es Salaam on the mainland, we had a bit of time to kill before we needed to leave for the airport.  We decided to get a bite to eat and found a restaurant on the 2nd floor of an office building.  We scanned the long menu and decided on something from the burger page.  Tanzanians serve fries with just about anything, but after the abundant seafood of the island we were hankering for a main dish that tasted a bit more normal.  We both decided to order cheeseburgers - strangely, cheeseburgers were listed on the menu as cheaper than hamburgers!  We chuckled at the way these strange Tanzanians do things and placed our order.  Our waiter made a great show of placing our cutlery in front of us in just the right place, and twisted all the condiment bottles so their labels faced us - we figured this was his way of vying for a great tip.  Surely he couldn't be expecting much on a $2 meal? Despite much clattering coming from the kitchens, no food came out for the next hour.  We got a little concerned because it was approaching the time we should leave for the airport.  The patrons at the next table seemed unconcerned, and when their bowl of potatoes arrived we figured our meal couldn't be far behind.    Finally our cheeseburgers appeared, with extravagant swoops of the waiter's arms to place the dishes before us in a carefully considered orientation.  Upon first sight, it became obvious to us they did not have and burger buns, for the top and bottom were circles cut from pita bread. With Dan's burger it appeared they had run out of pita so they had fitted together a little puzzle of pita scraps and one complicated shape of cut bread to top his burger.  It was so comical we burst out laughing.  When we peeked inside them we discovered there was no patty; instead there was a jumble of tenderized beef pieces.  There was also no cheese in our cheeseburgers.  Dan mentioned this to the waiter, and the waiter joined in our laughter, saying "Oh, the chef must have been confused and forgot the cheese.  Don't worry, I will make sure you only pay the cheeseburger price!"