What food should you try in Tanzania? What is the most common food sold in local restaurants?

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Tanzanian cuisine

Street food is widespread in Tanzania - stalls selling local pastries, chicken or chips are literally on every corner, in tourist resorts, big cities and small villages.

Classic restaurants are divided into expensive and moderately expensive and then into restaurants for locals.

Typical Tanzanian (Swahili) specialities

The local cuisine is much influenced by Indian cuisine, many restaurants are owned by Indian Tanzanians.

However, the traditional street food is typical Swahili - simple pastries and especially chicken.

Street stalls

Street food is very cheap and actually quite good if you don't expect haute cuisine.

Most often in the stalls absolutely everywhere in Tanzania you will find these dishes:

• kuku choma (mshikaki) - grilled chicken
  • 1 piece from 1 500 tzs
  • on the menu with chips / potatoes, salad, possibly fried banana around 6 000 tzs to 8 500 tzs
• nyama choma - grilled goat meat
  • 1 piece from 2 000 tzs
  • on the menu with fries / potatoes, salad, possibly fried banana around 7 000 tzs to 10 000 tzs
• bhajia - deep fried salty bean paste, great for a quick snack
  • 1 piece from 400 tzs
• mandazi - sweet pastry without jam, similar to doughnuts
  • 1 piece from 600 tzs
• chapati - Indian flatbread, which has spread widely into Swahili cuisine
  • 1 piece from 500 tzs
• vitumbua - small rice pancakes resembling doughnuts, I really liked them - a simple and quick snack!
  • 1 piece from 400 tzs
• fried banana
  • 1 piece from 500 tzs
• samosa - crispy triangular-shaped pastry filled with potatoes, vegetables, sauces, meat, cheese, shrimp and fish
  • 1 piece from 500 tzs
• Sugar cane juice - definitely my favourite drink in Tanzania!
  • A glass between 1 500 tzs and 2 000 tzs

You can also often buy fresh oranges, pineapples, bananas or of course coconuts at street stalls near the beaches.

Prices range between 1 000 tzs and 5 000 tzs depending on how you manage to haggle.

Local restaurants

In the larger towns and resorts, you will also find quite a few eateries and restaurants in addition to street stalls.

In tourist areas like Zanzibar, prices are quite high, but in regular mainland towns you won't pay more than 15 000 tzs for a full hot meal with drinks.

Typical meals in restaurants are as follows:

• ugali - one of the most traditional Swahili dishes, a thick doughy ball made from corn flour
• pilau - aromatic rice flavoured with a lot of spices
• grilled chicken, chips, rice, vegetables
• fish (barracuda, swordfish, tuna)
• seafood (mostly octopus)
• pizza

Tourist restaurants and fast food

In Zanzibar and in the big hotels you will find near the standard tourist expensive restaurants with western or Asian cuisine and full western prices.

Some of the most famous restaurants in all of Africa are undoubtedly The Rock in Zanzibar.

There aren't many international fast-food outlets in Tanzania and branches are mostly just at airports.

The healthfulness of the food

Hygiene in street stalls or local restaurants is certainly not at the same level as in Europe, the Middle East or Australia.

However, I had no problem at all with the street food during my visit, and I even ate fish in the markets.

In general, the level of hygiene is much higher than in, say, India or Egypt.