THE TANZANIA CUISINE

THIS WEEK’S SELECTION

I’m not a trained chef but I have an experience living in a village and pursuing a degree in food science which has given me a lot of first-hand experience on how traditional Tanzanian dishes are prepared . I’ll describe some of the most popular dishes in Tanzanian cuisine and talk briefly about how to make them. One day, maybe you can try making them yourself from the comfort of your own home. This week we will go with ugali as one of the Tanzanian cuisine.

Ugali

This is the most commonly eaten food in Tanzania. Ugali is a Tanzanian national dish and something that the average person eats about four times a week. It’s an affordable dish that can be found on the menu of every local restaurant. In schools, particularly in public schools, it’s eaten almost every 4 days in a week with beans, vegetables, soup, dagaa, and other types of fish.

Ugali is considered a high-energy food and is consumed by many people who do labor-intensive work like farming, construction, fishing, and factory work. Even office workers eat it too. In some tribes of Tanzania, like the Sukuma, ugali is regarded as men’s food and is often eaten for breakfast.

Ugali is prepared by mixing flour with hot water to achieve a stiff consistency. It’s most commonly made with maize, followed by cassava, sorghum, and then millet. However, it’s common to mix two or more flours like maize and millet or maize and sorghum to enhance its flavor and increase its nutritional value.

Even the younger men sometimes do prefer eating this kind of food before meeting their partners as it is believed that it is the number one food in the Tanzanian cuisine that provides energy hence it will give them more energy and stability.