Kakwa

Matoke

Green cooking bananas steamed in their own leaves until soft and yellow, then mashed. The staple of the Baganda and the food that defines central Uganda.

Serves 6 · 1 hour 30 minutes

Katogo

also Matoke katogo, Breakfast stew

Green bananas cooked in one pot with offal, beans or groundnut sauce until they absorb everything. Uganda's breakfast, argued about endlessly for what should go in it.

Serves 4 · 50 minutes

Kalo

also Millet bread, Atap

Finger millet flour worked into a dense dark brown loaf, often with cassava flour for body. The staple of eastern and northern Uganda, torn and dipped into sauce.

Serves 6 · 35 minutes

Luwombo

Chicken, beef or groundnut sauce steamed inside a banana leaf parcel, invented in the 1880s by a cook to Kabaka Mwanga II. Opened at the table so the steam is released in front of the guest.

Serves 6 · 2 hours

Rolex

An omelette rolled inside a chapati, whose name is a compression of rolled eggs. Sold from griddle stalls outside every campus and taxi park in Uganda.

Serves 2 · 30 minutes

Grilled Tilapia

also Ngege, Fish choma

Whole tilapia from Lake Victoria, scored, rubbed with garlic and lemon and grilled over charcoal at the landing sites. Eaten with the fingers and a heap of kachumbari.

Serves 4 · 45 minutes, plus 1 hour marinating

Gonja

also Roast plantain

Sweet plantain roasted whole over charcoal until the skin blackens and the flesh caramelises, sold at every Ugandan roadside and taxi stage.

Serves 4 · 25 minutes

Binyebwa

Groundnut sauce, sometimes with mushrooms or smoked fish, steamed or simmered and served over matoke. The sauce that goes with everything at a Ugandan celebration.

Serves 6 · 1 hour

Muchomo

also Goat muchomo, Nyama choma ya mbuzi

Goat meat on sticks, salted and grilled slowly over charcoal, the fixture of every Ugandan celebration and the reason the town of Nakasongola is on the map.

Serves 8 · 1 hour 15 minutes, plus 2 hours marinating

Malewa

Smoked bamboo shoots stewed with groundnut, a Bagisu dish from the slopes of Mount Elgon. Prepared at imbalu circumcision ceremonies and sold dried in Mbale market.

Serves 6 · 1 hour 30 minutes, plus soaking

Eshabwe

also Ghee sauce, Ankole ghee sauce

Clarified butter whipped with rock salt and water until it turns white and thick, the ceremonial sauce of the Ankole and Toro pastoral kingdoms. Poured over millet bread or matoke.

Serves 6 as a sauce · 30 minutes

Bushera

Sorghum or millet flour fermented into a thin sour drink, served fresh to children and left longer to turn alcoholic for adults. A Bakiga and Banyankole staple.

Serves 6 · 20 minutes, plus 1 to 3 days fermenting

Kisra

Thin fermented sorghum flatbread spread on a hot plate and peeled off in sheets, the base of every meal in the north of the country.

Serves Makes 12 · 30 minutes, plus 2 days fermenting

Mulukhiyah

also Jute leaf stew, Khudra

Jute mallow leaves cooked to a thick green sauce with garlic and dried fish, poured over asida. Simple, cheap and eaten across the whole of South Sudan.

Serves 6 · 45 minutes

Asida with Kudra

Sorghum porridge with a green sauce of okra or greens, the everyday meal across South Sudan. Turned out as a dome and eaten from the shared dish.

Serves 6 · 1 hour

Combo

also Okra and greens stew

Fresh okra and wild greens cooked down with sesame paste into a thick, deliberately slippery stew, eaten with asida. The South Sudanese household dish.

Serves 6 · 50 minutes

Kajaik

Dried Nile fish stewed with onion and groundnut into a thick sauce, eaten with asida. The Nile's fish is dried in quantity and traded far inland.

Serves 6 · 1 hour

Roast Goat for a Feast

A goat or bull killed and roasted whole for a wedding, a homecoming or the settlement of a dispute. In cattle-keeping societies the animal is the message.

Serves 12 or more · 4 hours

Fatta

also Bread and meat platter

Torn flatbread layered with meat broth, yoghurt and fried onion, assembled in a great tray at Eid and at weddings and eaten communally.

Serves 8 · 2 hours

Wala Wala

Sorghum or maize porridge with a simple bean or greens relish, eaten in the Equatorias. Plain food, and what most of the country eats most days.

Serves 6 · 50 minutes

Merissa

Sorghum beer brewed and sold by women, drunk from calabashes at markets and gatherings. It is thick, sour and cloudy, and doubles as food.

Serves Makes about 5 litres · 4 days

Fufu

Cassava and maize flour beaten into a firm dough, the daily food of most of the Congo. Rolled in the fingers, dented with the thumb, and used to scoop.

Serves 6 · 30 minutes

Madesu

also Congolese beans, Haricots

Red beans stewed with onion, tomato and palm oil until thick, the cheapest and most eaten dish in Kinshasa. Served with fufu or rice and a spoon of chilli.

Serves 6 · 2 hours, plus overnight soaking

Poulet à la Moambé

also Moambe chicken, Nsusu na mwambe

Chicken cooked in palm nut pulp with chilli and garlic, the national dish of both Congos. The palm oil rising orange to the surface is the sign it is ready.

Serves 6 · 1 hour 30 minutes

Ntaba

also Grilled goat, Chèvre braisée

Goat marinated in mustard, garlic and lemon then grilled slowly over charcoal, the Kinshasa nganda dish, eaten late with plantain and beer.

Serves 6 · 1 hour 30 minutes, plus 4 hours marinating

Mikate

also Beignets

Fried dough balls sold from basins by women at every Kinshasa junction, eaten hot at breakfast or as a snack with sweet coffee.

Serves Makes 24 · 2 hours 15 minutes

Makemba

also Grilled plantain, Banane braisée

Plantain grilled over charcoal until blistered and served with a fierce pili-pili, sold outside every Kinshasa bar and bus stop.

Serves 4 · 25 minutes

Liboke ya Mbisi

Fish steamed in a banana leaf parcel with onion, chilli and lime, the Congo river's signature method. Opened at the table so the steam and smell arrive together.

Serves 4 · 1 hour

Mbika

also Egusi in leaves, Pumpkin seed parcels

Ground melon seed mixed with fish or meat, wrapped in leaves and steamed until it sets into a savoury cake. A Congolese celebration dish and a market food.

Serves 6 · 1 hour 30 minutes

Pondu

also Saka saka

Pounded cassava leaves cooked long with palm oil, smoked fish and aubergine. Eaten across the Congo basin and cooked for hours, since cassava leaves demand it.

Serves 6 · 1 hour 45 minutes

Sombe ya Kivu

also Kivu cassava leaves, Sombe

Cassava leaves pounded and cooked long with palm oil and smoked fish, the daily dish of the Kivu hills. Bitter, dark and cooked until it no longer is.

Serves 6 · 2 hours

Malafu ya Ngasi

also Palm wine

Palm wine tapped from the oil palm and drunk the same day, sweet in the morning and sharp by evening. Poured for the ancestors before anyone else drinks.

Serves Varies · Tapped daily

Lotoko

also Congolese maize spirit

Distilled maize or cassava spirit, made in the villages and drunk everywhere. Clear, strong and entirely unregulated — this is a description of a tradition rather than a recommendation.

Serves Varies · 5 to 7 days fermenting, plus distilling