Short answer
Tanzanian food is built on a starch, usually ugali (stiff maize porridge), rice or plantain, served with a stew of beans, meat, fish or greens. The dishes to try are ugali, nyama choma, mshikaki, chipsi mayai, pilau, wali na maharage, mtori, ndizi nyama, samaki wa kupaka, urojo, Zanzibar pizza and mandazi with chai.
On safari you will mostly eat at lodges and camps, where the kitchen cooks for international guests (our safari food guide covers what that looks like). The local food is in the towns, at roadside grills and at the night market in Stone Town. These are the twelve dishes we tell guests to order.
Mainland staples
1. Ugali
Maize flour stirred into boiling water until it is thick enough to hold its shape. It tastes of very little on its own, and that is the point: you pull off a piece with your right hand, press a dip into it with your thumb and use it to scoop up stew or greens. If you eat one Tanzanian meal, make it ugali with mchicha (spinach-like greens) and a beef or bean stew.
2. Nyama choma
Grilled meat, usually goat or beef, cooked slowly over charcoal and chopped at the table. It comes with salt, chilli and kachumbari, a fresh tomato and onion salad. Nyama choma is a social meal, eaten in the evening with friends and a cold drink.
3. Mshikaki
Marinated beef skewers grilled at street stalls after dark. The smoke gives them away before you see them. A couple of sticks with a side of chips makes a cheap, filling dinner.
4. Chipsi mayai
Chips cooked into an omelette in a small pan and served with kachumbari and chilli sauce. It is the country's favourite fast food, sold everywhere from bus stands to beach bars, and it is vegetarian.
5. Pilau
Rice cooked in stock with cumin, cardamom, cinnamon, cloves and black pepper, usually with beef or chicken. Pilau came to the coast with traders across the Indian Ocean and is now the dish of weddings, Eid and Sunday lunch.
6. Wali na maharage
Rice and beans, the everyday lunch across Tanzania. The beans are simmered with tomato, onion and often coconut milk. Simple, cheap and a safe choice for vegetarians.
Dishes from the Kilimanjaro region
7. Mtori
A smooth soup of green bananas cooked with beef and then mashed, from the Chagga people who farm the slopes of Kilimanjaro. It is the kind of food you are given when you are tired or unwell, which makes it a good order in Moshi after a climb.
8. Ndizi nyama
Plantain stewed with beef, tomato and onion until it soaks up the sauce. Bananas grow everywhere on the mountain's lower slopes, and you will see them in many Chagga dishes. Our article on Chagga culture and Kilimanjaro tells more of that story.
Zanzibar and the coast
9. Samaki wa kupaka
Fish, often red snapper or kingfish, grilled and then simmered in a coconut sauce with tamarind, garlic and chilli. It is the dish that shows best how Indian, Arab and African cooking came together on the coast.
10. Urojo (Zanzibar mix)
A tangy yellow soup made with mango and tamarind, poured over potatoes, bhajias (chickpea fritters), crisp cassava and boiled egg, then finished with coconut chutney and chilli. Every vendor in Stone Town makes it a little differently.
11. Zanzibar pizza
Not a pizza at all. A thin dough is folded around minced meat, onion, egg and cheese, or banana and Nutella, then fried on a hot plate. You will find it at the Forodhani Gardens night market on the waterfront, where the stalls open as the sun goes down.
12. Mandazi and chai
Mandazi are lightly sweet fried doughnuts, often flavoured with cardamom and coconut. Have them with chai, tea boiled with milk, sugar and spices, for breakfast or in the afternoon. They are sold in every town in the morning, still warm.
Where to eat them on a Gosheni trip
| Where you are | What to order |
|---|---|
| Arusha, before or after a safari | Nyama choma, mshikaki, chipsi mayai |
| Moshi, before or after Kilimanjaro | Mtori, ndizi nyama, ugali with stew |
| Stone Town, Zanzibar | Urojo, Zanzibar pizza, samaki wa kupaka, grilled seafood |
| Anywhere, any morning | Mandazi and chai |
At Forodhani, agree the price before the stallholder starts cooking, and choose the busiest stalls, where the food has not been sitting. Alcohol is not served in the gardens.
Table manners worth knowing
- Eat with your right hand, especially ugali. The left hand is seen as unclean.
- A jug and basin often come round before the meal so everyone can wash their hands.
- Wait for the eldest person, or the host, to start.
- In Zanzibar during Ramadan, many local restaurants open only after sunset, while hotels serve meals as normal.
Planning the rest of the trip? Our Tanzania travel guide covers the basics, from money to manners.
Questions
Tanzanian food questions
<p>Ugali is the closest thing to one. It is eaten every day across the mainland, usually with a stew of meat, beans or greens. In Zanzibar, rice dishes such as pilau are more common.</p>
<p>Mostly not. Dishes are seasoned with spices such as cumin, cardamom and cloves rather than heat, and the chilli usually comes as a sauce on the side, so you decide how hot it gets.</p>
<p>Yes. Rice and beans, ugali with greens, chipsi mayai, mandazi and many coastal coconut curries are vegetarian, and safari lodges cook vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free meals if you tell us in advance.</p>
