Tanzania Food Guide

Tanzania has two food cultures that meet on the coast, and the difference between them is the difference between a continent and an ocean.

Ugali, and what it is for

Ugali is maize flour cooked with water into a firm, smooth, faintly elastic mass, eaten with the right hand. You pull off a piece, press a hollow into it with your thumb, and use it to lift stew, greens or fish.

It is not a side dish and it is not bland by accident. It is deliberately neutral, because its job is to carry the flavor of everything else on the plate. Judging it on its own is like judging bread by eating it without the meal.

Mishkaki, and the case for eating on the street

Mishkaki is marinated meat, usually beef or goat, cut small, threaded onto skewers and grilled over charcoal at the roadside in the evening. It is the country's most reliable street food and it is cooked in front of you at high heat, which is also the reasonable answer to the question everyone asks about street food.

The grills come out at dusk. In Dar es Salaam and along the coast they are the center of the evening rather than an accompaniment to it.

The islands were built by the trade, and so was the cooking

Zanzibar's food is the clearest surviving argument for what the Indian Ocean did to this coast. Cloves, cardamom, cinnamon, black pepper and nutmeg are not garnishes here; they are the structure of the dish.

UNESCO's inscription for Stone Town puts the reason plainly: for many centuries there was intense seaborne trading activity between Asia and Africa, and it is illustrated in an exceptional manner by the town's architecture and urban structure. The same sentence describes the kitchen. Pilau, biryani, coconut in almost everything, and the sweet spiced tea that follows a meal all arrive on the same ships as the carved doors.

Further south, the ruins at Kilwa Kisiwani record the earlier version of the same trade: gold and ivory from the interior exchanged for silver, carnelians, perfumes, Persian faience and Chinese porcelain between the 13th and 16th centuries.

Two practical rules the kitchen does not set

The first is a plastic bag ban. Plastic bags are banned in Tanzania for environmental reasons and are collected from arriving air passengers. It changes how takeaway food is handed to you and it is a reason to carry a fabric bag rather than expect one.

The second is Ramadan. In Zanzibar and Pemba especially, avoid eating or drinking in public outside hotels and restaurants during the fasting month. The evening meal that breaks the fast is one of the best things to eat in the country, and you will be welcome at it.