Exploration of Traditional Tanzanian Cuisine
Let’s tantalize your taste buds, beginning with delightful snacks.
Chipsi mayai
A quintessential street food, Chipsi mayai, or ‘chips and eggs,’ features an omelette combined with French fries. Often enhanced with ingredients like bell peppers or onions, it’s typically served with a side of flavorful kachumbari sauce.
Mandazi
A highly favored snack, Mandazi is a unique type of doughnut. Triangular, circular, or even square pieces of risen dough are fried, served plain or dusted with sugar, and accompanied by fruit dips.
Zanzibar Pizza
While in Zanzibar, savor the distinctive Zanzibar pizza, unrelated to its Italian counterpart. Unleavened dough is topped with vegetables, meat, cheese, or mayo, folded over, and fried in ghee.
Mshikaki
Whether as a full meal or a street food option, Mshikaki consists of marinated beef, goat, or mutton skewers grilled over charcoal until charred. For a complete meal, it pairs well with rice and grilled or cooked vegetables.
Ugali
A staple in Tanzanian cuisine, Ugali is a corn or sorghum-based polenta, slightly sticky and dense, serving as the foundation for many meals. It accompanies various meats, vegetables, stews, or sour milk.
Mchicha
Among the favorites is Mchicha, a hearty vegetarian dish featuring spinach (mchicha) and amaranth with coconut milk, grated coconut, peanuts, peanut butter, tomatoes, and onions. Often served with ugali, rice, and beans.
Mchuzi wa Samaki
A must-try fish dish is Mchuzi wa Samaki, where white fish like red snapper, sea bass, or cod is cooked with oil, onions, garlic, curry powder, tomatoes, and lemon juice. White rice complements the rich sauce, while Wali wa nazi offers a coconut milk-infused rice option.
Ndizi na Nyama
Savor the mouthwatering Ndizi na Nyama, a dish featuring plantains (ndizi) and meat (nyama) in a stew with curry powder and coconut milk, showcasing Indian culinary influences.
Mchemsho
Exclusive to northern Tanzania, Mchemsho, meaning ‘something that is boiled,’ is a dish reserved for special occasions. Slow-simmered vegetables, including plantains, carrots, green beans, cabbage, eggplants, peppers, and various spices, are combined with grilled fish or meat and served with ugali or rice.
