Tanzanian food divides between the mainland, where maize and grilled meat dominate, and the coast and Zanzibar, where centuries of Indian Ocean trade produced a cuisine of coconut milk, spice and rice. Very little of the mainland food is hot; the coastal food often is.
Ugali
Stiff maize porridge, cooked to the point where it holds its shape and eaten with the right hand by pinching off a piece and using it to scoop. It is the daily staple for most of the country and is served with a relish: mchicha, amaranth greens cooked with tomato and sometimes peanut, beans, or a stew of beef or fish. Ugali is not a side dish; it is the meal, and everything else accompanies it.
Nyama choma
Grilled meat, usually goat or beef, ordered by the kilo at a bar or a dedicated choma joint, cut up on a board and eaten with kachumbari, a salad of tomato, onion, chilli and lime. It is an afternoon and evening social activity as much as a meal, and it is how Tanzanians eat out.
Rice dishes
Pilau is rice cooked with cumin, cardamom, cinnamon and cloves with meat, served at celebrations. Wali wa nazi is rice cooked in coconut milk and is the coastal default. Biryani arrived with Indian traders and is layered rather than mixed. Chapati and mandazi, a lightly sweet fried dough, are the standard breakfast alongside chai spiced with ginger and cardamom.
The coast and Zanzibar
Seafood is excellent and cheap: kingfish, octopus in coconut curry, prawns, lobster. Urojo, also called Zanzibar mix, is a tangy mango and turmeric soup with bhajias, potato and chutney, sold on the street. At Forodhani Gardens the evening stalls sell grilled seafood and the Zanzibar pizza, a fried stuffed pancake that is neither pizza nor traditional but is worth eating anyway. Mishkaki are marinated meat skewers.
Fruit and drink
The coast produces some of the best mangoes anywhere in season, plus jackfruit, custard apple and passion fruit. Tanzania grows excellent arabica coffee on the slopes of Kilimanjaro and in the southern highlands, though most of it is exported. Kilimanjaro and Serengeti are the national lagers; Konyagi is a local spirit. Fresh sugarcane juice with lime and ginger is sold on the street everywhere.
Eating out
A plate of ugali with stew in a local canteen costs a couple of thousand shillings; the same meal in a tourist restaurant costs ten times that. Lunch is the main meal of the day and most local eateries have sold out of the best dishes by three in the afternoon.