Food & drinks

Local taste

The staple food in Tanzania is Ugali, a traditional dish which is made by mixing maize or cassava flour (or a mixture of both) in hot water until it becomes stiff – similar to Polenta. Ugali is eaten with a meat, fish or vegetable sauce, using the fingers to dip lumps of Ugali in the relish.

Tanzanians love to eat meat

Nyama choma is Kiswahili for grilled meat. It can be either nyama n’gombe, grilled beef, or nyama kuku, grilled chicken. They cook the meat until it is way past well done. The meat is mostly sliced into bite sized morsels and served in a bowl with a side of ugali and grilled bananas.

Non-alcoholic beverages

For cold drinks there is bottled water and soda. If you order a soda in Tanzania, you will get a soft drink. Tea is called chai and prepared with various kinds of spices and consumed similarly to indian tea. And there is Africafe, an organic instant coffee and the one and only coffee available in Tanzania.

Alcoholic beverages

There is beer and konyagi. The most popular beer brand depends on where you are. In and around Arusha, Kilimanjaro Lager is the choice. Kilimanjaro is a very mild beer. The other choices: Kibo Gold, which tastes a lot like Kilimanjaro, and Serengeti Lager, which was malt liquor at 8% alcohol. Konyagi sounds similar to Cognac, it is a spirit, you can mix it with Tonic water to create a sort of G&T.