When traveling and sightseeing, trying new flavors and dishes makes it even more fun. When trying out new foods expounds a person’s food horizons and finds new recipes and new ways to eat food. Through food, you get to experience a community’s culture firsthand. Local food is known to be fresher and tastes better and you get to try seasonal foods too.
- Goat Stew
It is a popular African dish made with tomatoes, vegetables, spices, and goat meat. Goat stew is a staple food in most African countries and is almost as popular as chicken and beef stews.
It can be served with dishes like rice, chapati, or any other meal that needs a stew.
- Rolex In Uganda
It is a roadside delicacy that is made especially in Uganda. It is basically a vegetable omelet made of cabbage, tomatoes, onions, and eggs. They are all cooked together and then rolled into a chapati- unleavened flatbread. Chapati is a renowned food in East African countries. It is known to look like a tortilla. Rolexes are sold everywhere in Uganda and are readily available even in roadside stalls.
The origin of Rolexes is not clear but some people say that the dish can be traced back to Busoga in Uganda. The rolex has a festival that draws both the locals and international visitors. The festival is called the Kampala Rolex Festival. During this festival, different chefs from the region come together to make variants of the rolex by adding different ingredients.
The snack is very cheap and readily available around Uganda which makes it a good dish to sample during a safari.
- Ful Medames In Egypt
It is a staple food served in the Middle East and some of the countries in North Africa, especially in Egypt. Normally, this food is served for breakfast or brunch. It is also casually referred to as Ful.
It is a stew prepared with cooked fava beans, served with vegetable oil, and cumin and sometimes it is served with chopped parsley, garlic, lemon, and chili among other vegetables. It takes 20 minutes to prepare the stew. The ful is served with pita bread and garnished with herbs and other vegetables.
Even though Ful medames is eaten for breakfast in most cases, it can also be eaten as a salad. This dish is considered Egypt’s national dish and international visitors are highly encouraged to try it. Each city has its own variant of this dish.
- Ifisashi & Nshima In Zambia
Ifisashi is a traditional vegetarian Zambian dish that is also consumed in Central and southern Africa. It is made with peanuts, tomatoes, onions, and greens. The greens that are used are spinach, sweet potato leaves, collard greens, and pumpkin leaves. The ingredients are cooked until they get to a certain point of consistent thickness. Ifisashi is served hot.
Nshima is dough made with maize flour and is savored with the fingers. It is not only consumed by Zambians but it is also consumed in other African countries. In all these countries, this is a staple food although named differently depending on the country.
Nshima can be served with different relishes from vegetables, and fish to meat. In this case, Ifisashi is prepared with nshima. Visitors are shown how to eat nshima the proper way by the locals.
- Muamba De Galinha In Angola
It is a popular chicken stew in Central Africa and a national dish in Angola, Gabon, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The dish can also be found in Belgium and Portugal. It has a different name in all the countries where it is found.
It is made by combining chicken, chili, garlic, okra, and butter to create a stew-like dish. It gets its unique taste from red palm oil. It is accompanied by rice or fungee- a traditional starchy food made from corn or cassava flour.
- Maafe/Domada In West Africa
Maafe is a spicy groundnut or peanut soup made in western Africa and said to have originated from Mali. It is also known as domoda, wolof, tigadeguena or sauce d’arachide in French.
It is made from ground groundnuts or peanuts, garlic, vegetables, cabbage, and tomatoes. There are different variants of this dish depending on the region. These variants use different ingredients from the original recipe.
Maafe is traditionally served with rice, but in other countries, it is served with millet dough, sweet potatoes, or fufu. It is good for both vegetarians and non-vegetarians.
- Matoke In Uganda
Matoke, also known as matooke, is a simple dish made from peeled green bananas. It is considered a national food in Uganda. Matoke is a staple food in East Africa mostly in Uganda, Kenya, Burundi, and Rwanda. Each country names the food in its local dialect. It can be used in a recipe in place of potatoes and can be eaten for lunch or dinner.
Just like potatoes, matoke can be boiled, mashed, fried, stewed, or roasted. It can be cooked with potatoes, carrots, ground peanuts, peas, and any other vegetables of choice. It can also be cooked with beef or not. It can be served with bread, chapati, and rice among others. Matoke is known to fill up the stomach for hours. It is also used to prepare a breakfast meal called katogo- a combination of matoke, peanuts, or beef.
- Baseema In Sudan
It is a traditional South Sudanese cake that is also made in Egypt. In Sudan, Baseema means delicious. Baseema is made from baking flour, eggs, coconut, yogurt, lemon, cinnamon, and vanilla. Some variants use rose water to bring out the flavor.
The pastry is baked in a wide pan, and when served it is cut into squares.
- Githeri In Kenya
It is a traditional Kenyan meal that is prepared with maize and legumes. It is also a staple meal in many parts of Africa: with variations in ingredients. The maize and legumes can be dry or fresh.
The legumes are mixed with maize and cooked in one pot until they are soft enough to eat. Githeri is also used to make mukimo- made from githeri, mashed potatoes or bananas, and greens. Githeri is mostly served as it is, but can also be served with rice or chapati. It can be eaten for lunch or dinner.