Kenya

Ugali

Maize flour stirred into a stiff cake, pinched off by hand to scoop stew.

Nyama choma

Goat or beef grilled slowly over charcoal, ordered by weight and cut at the table.

Sukuma wiki

Collard greens fried with onion and tomato, the name meaning to push the week.

Githeri

Maize and beans boiled together, a Kikuyu staple carried into school lunches.

Mukimo

Potato mashed green with peas, maize and pumpkin leaves, served with meat.

Irio

Mashed potato, peas and maize, the same idea as mukimo with less green.

Pilau

Coastal rice cooked with cumin, cardamom and beef, dark and heavily spiced.

Chapati

Layered flatbread fried in oil, richer and flakier than the Indian original.

Mandazi

Coconut-scented fried dough triangles eaten with tea in the morning.

Kachumbari

Tomato, onion and coriander salad with lime, served with anything grilled.

Mutura

Blood and meat sausage grilled on the street and cut into coin-sized pieces.

Matoke

Green bananas stewed with meat until they collapse into the sauce.

Wali wa nazi

Coastal rice cooked in coconut milk, served with fish curry.

Omena

Tiny lake sardines dried and fried with onion, eaten with ugali around Lake Victoria.

Uji

Fermented millet or sorghum porridge drunk warm from a mug at breakfast.

Maziwa lala

Naturally soured milk drunk cold, sometimes smoked in a gourd.

Chai

Tea boiled with milk and sugar together, never added afterwards.

Kenyan coffee

Bright, blackcurrant-toned arabica from the slopes around Mount Kenya.