CUISINE Most Popular Ugandan Street Food Delicacies

Most Popular Ugandan

Street Food Delicacies

Uganda is a unique haven of vibrant cultures, fascinating people, and flavourful dishes. And what is a trip to a foreign land if you do not sample the street food? Ugandan street food mainly has African, Asian and Swahili/coastal influences. Here are a few of our favourites.

Muchomo (Roasted Meats)

Muchomo is roasted chicken, beef, goat, liver, or pork, usually served with roasted plantain (Gonja), roasted matooke fingers, and kachumbari (tomato salsa and chilli peppers). The meat is chopped, marinated, and roasted on skewers over open fires. Muchomo is mostly roadside/street food, but can also be found in restaurants and bars.

TV Chicken

In the evenings, a stroll through most streets in Kampala and other major towns will take you past one chicken street vendor after another. The chicken is specially roasted in a “TV-lookalike oven” (rotisserie) and served with chips (fries) and a salad.

Kabalagala/Ugandan Pancakes

Cassava (tapioca) flour is mixed with mashed sweet bananas and kneaded into a soft dough. The batter is then rolled out into a thick circle, cut out with a glass to make round shapes, and deep-fried to a golden brown.

Fried Cassava

Cassava tubers are chopped into slices and deep-fried to a crispy golden brown and eaten alone or served besides fried meats with kachumbari (tomato salsa) and greens.

Nsenene

Nsenene are a crispy grasshopper snack. During the wet season, around May and November, grasshoppers are captured, their wings and legs plucked off. They are then washed and fried with onions, chilli, salt, and other species. Grasshoppers secrete oil, which is used to fry them into crisp crunchy snacks. Many people say that Nsenene taste like crispy fried chicken skin. Yummy!

Chapati

Chapati is both a side dish and snack in Uganda. It is a type of unleavened flatbread that is very similar to a tortilla. It can be served with several different entrees such as meat, beans, or vegetables, and is most often paired with a Rolex.

Kikomando

Kikomando, most popular with youths, is a mix of chopped chapati and beans. Other alternative ingredients of Kikomando include avocado, meats, or vegetable stew. This meal is served at both street stalls and restaurants, making it very easy to find. It is perfect for travellers on a budget because it is very inexpensive.

Gonja (Plantain)

Although they look like bananas, plantains (also called Boli in Nigeria) have a banana’s sweetness when ripe but are starchy, like potatoes. When roasted, they have a sweetsavoury taste. It is served on the streets and in restaurants as part of the main menu. In grocery stores, it is packaged as thin slices, deep-fried to crunchy perfection.

Roasted Corn (Maize)

A snack for any time of day, maize is slowly roasted over a medium fire until all sides turn to a brownish colour. Since fresh maize is used, this snack is seasonal and unavailable at certain times of the year.