Characteristic products
Maize and plantain are probably the most common staples of Ugandan cuisine. Other starchy foods include cassava, yam, sweet potato and rice, not forgetting the rarer imported potato. Among the most popular meats are beef, chicken, mutton, goat and pork, not forgetting various bush meats. However, meat is generally reserved for feast days. Nyama is the Bantu word for " meat ". Although Uganda has no coastline to speak of, the country stretches along the immense Lake Victoria, the world's largest tropical lake, and its fish-filled waters. Tilapia or Nile perch, a fish that can reach 2 m in length and weigh 220 kg, are eaten here.
Vegetables include onions, tomatoes, avocados, cabbage, spinach and various types of dried peas and beans. Also consumed is okra, a vegetable resembling a green chili pepper, but with a zucchini taste, much appreciated for its viscous juice that thickens sauces.
Naturally, your meals will be different if you travel to high-end lodges and hotels where the cuisine is largely Westernized, or if you travel independently. Along the way, many small local restaurants (hoteli) offer authentic traditional cuisine, often in buffet form. Driver-guides generally know the best places to eat, and the prices are unbeatable. In Kampala, you can sample not only Ugandan specialities, but also more exotic cuisines (Indian, Chinese, Italian, Japanese, Ethiopian, Turkish, etc.).
Classics of Ugandan cuisine
The two staples of traditional Ugandan cuisine are matooke (mashed plantains) and posho (or ugali), which are found under different names throughout most of Africa. Posho is a paste made from pounded maize, stirred for a long time with boiled water, which can be eaten lightly sweetened with milk for breakfast. Like matooke, posho is eaten in small handfuls, then kneaded in the palm to form a compact ball. The posho is then used like a piece of bread to pick up the various side dishes: chicken, fish or vegetables. It can also be molded into a dish, then turned out onto a plate once firm and sliced.
There's also a variety of posho called kwon, made from millet. Called kalo in the west of the country, it is sometimes made with sweet potato starch in eastern Uganda. The other mainstay of local cuisine is matooke. The name also refers to the variety of plantain used to prepare this dish. This dish accompanies meat in sauce, alongside rice, beans or fish. Peanuts are a very popular ingredient in Uganda, and are most often cooked in a thick sauce(binyebwa), more or less smooth, which is served with meats, vegetables, posho and matooke. This sauce is also used to prepare malewa, a stew made from smoked bamboo shoots. Malakwang is a thick northern sauce made from the leaves of the eponymous hibiscus-like vegetable. Another northern specialty, dek-ngor , is a very thick sauce made from lapena peas, which can be a dish in its own right.
One of the most famous meat dishes is luwombo. This specialty consists of chicken, beef or fish, stewed in banana leaves. It's a meal for special occasions, and is generally served at the buffet of hoteli (small local restaurants). Alternatively, there's muchomo, tasty beef kebabs flavored with a blend of cumin, cardamom and cayenne pepper.
As in the rest of East Africa, the Indian presence has had a marked influence on local cuisine, and chapatis (flatbreads), curries and samoussas are commonplace in the country. Kikomando, a dish created in the 2000s based on chapatis cut into strips and red beans in sauce, is very popular with workers and students for its low price. And don't forget rolex (a deformation of " rolled eggs "), a chapati topped with omelette.
Desserts and drinks
Desserts in Uganda are not very varied. Simsim is a generic term for both sesame seeds and small sweets made from sesame seeds and caramel. Alternatively, try mandazi, a type of doughnut generally flavored with cardamom and shaped like a triangle, or kabalagala, a type of banana pancake. As for fruit, apart from the countless varieties of banana, the main fruits are passion fruit and pineapple, but mangoes, oranges, coconuts and jackfruit, with their fibrous pulp, are also available.
Uganda produces excellent coffee, mainly Robusta, but outside the tourist establishments, it's generally very light, and coffee lovers will want to specify that they want a strong coffee. In keeping with English tradition, the Ugandans prefer tea, which the country also produces in considerable quantities, and which is served in bags or boiled in a pot, sometimes flavoured with a hint of ginger.
Beer is one of the most widely consumed beverages, and the country boasts two major breweries. Nile Breweries (in Njeru) brews Nile Special, Club and Castle, while Uganda Breweries (in Kampala) brews Bell, Pilsner and Tusker. Most of these beers are available in varying degrees of alcohol. In the villages, traditional beers (obushera) are made from millet or sorghum, such as enturire, flavored with a hint of honey. Waragi is a generic term for a strong alcohol distilled from manioc, millet, bananas, etc. Finally, try amarula, a South African liqueur reminiscent of Bailey's. Wine is also often imported from South Africa.
