Tanzanian safari leader's journey leads him to Wisconsin
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Ombeni “Ben” Pallangyo cooks up the flavors of East Africa in his Stoughton restaurant.
Safari is a Swahili word meaning journey. And Tanzanian safari leader Ombeni “Ben” Pallangyo's path to Wisconsin has been quite the journey. After marrying a Wisconsin woman, he kept leading tours of East African locales. After finding that his clients missed the food they'd had there, he opened Ben's African and Mediterranean Cuisine in Stoughton.
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Wisconsin Life is a local public television program presented by PBS Wisconsin
Funding for Wisconsin Life is provided by the Wooden Nickel Fund, Mary and Lowell Peterson, A.C.V. and Mary Elston Family, Obrodovich Family Foundation, Stanley J. Cottrill Fund, Alliant Energy, UW...
Tanzanian safari leader's journey leads him to Wisconsin
Clip | 3m 50sVideo has Closed Captions
Safari is a Swahili word meaning journey. And Tanzanian safari leader Ombeni “Ben” Pallangyo's path to Wisconsin has been quite the journey. After marrying a Wisconsin woman, he kept leading tours of East African locales. After finding that his clients missed the food they'd had there, he opened Ben's African and Mediterranean Cuisine in Stoughton.
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Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorship[bright accordion music] - Angela Fitzgerald: Along Main Street in Stoughton, the town's Norwegian heritage is on proud display.
But off Main, Ben's African Mediterranean Cuisine shows that Stoughton's global connections go even broader.
- Ben Pallangyo: Well, I grew up in Tanzania, East Africa.
Born and raised.
- Angela: Ben Pallangyo's East African background is seen in the decor and on the menu.
- Then you go to main course, then you go to dessert.
This is so fresh.
You can do this with any meal.
- Angela: Keeping it fresh for Ben means an always-evolving menu.
- Our menu changes every hour.
- Angela: And hours could be spent looking at the trophies of Ben's travels across Africa.
There, he leads safaris featuring encounters with animals unlike any from Wisconsin.
[lions roaring] - Ben: The pride of lions.
The hippo up closer.
Up-close encounter with the elephants.
If you go on safari, you come back different person.
- Angela: The word "safari" simply means "journey" in Swahili, one of Ben's native languages.
His journey brought him along an unlikely path to Stoughton.
Ben met a Wisconsin woman while working as a restaurateur and tour leader in Africa.
- My now ex-wife, but great friend, good relationship still because we have a family together.
- Angela: Ben still remembers the shock of arriving during Wisconsin's winter.
- Ben: It was bloody hell cold.
I feel like I'm at 19,340 feet, which is the height of Mount Kilimanjaro.
- Angela: But Ben quickly found Wisconsin's warmth.
- My first impression was Wisconsin people are wonderful people.
Make no mistake.
- Angela: And Ben found other signs he'd come to the right place.
- When I come to Stoughton, I found this flag from Tanzania.
- Angela: It was at the Lutheran church he'd just joined.
- Ben: They support a mission in Tanzania, and I have a family member who works there.
I immediately felt that it was no coincidence.
You cannot ignore a sign, a good sign.
There is a good sign sometimes lands upon you.
- Angela: But not all signs have been inviting.
Ben's own restaurant sign was vandalized a few months after he opened.
And that wasn't all.
- I just woke up, I went to parking lot, get into my car, and I found out, [glass shattering] the window, it's broken.
I'm not concerned about the small intimidation of breaking my window.
You can break the window, but you cannot break Ben.
Ben is an unbreakable animal from Serengeti.
- Angela: And the community rallied its support.
- Ben: People were very upset.
The community was upset.
So many people came here to support me.
I've never seen this love before.
Now there is something personal to me about Wisconsin.
- Angela: Wisconsin will always be a part of Ben's safari through life.
- Wisconsin has given me a family.
My son Remi, my daughter Chloe, they're both Wisconsin kids, raised here, and they are incredible.
Wisconsin has given me life.
[gentle music]
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Wisconsin Life is a local public television program presented by PBS Wisconsin
Funding for Wisconsin Life is provided by the Wooden Nickel Fund, Mary and Lowell Peterson, A.C.V. and Mary Elston Family, Obrodovich Family Foundation, Stanley J. Cottrill Fund, Alliant Energy, UW...