Flavors of Maputo Food Tour

Where the Food Comes From

Three histories sit on a Mozambican table at once. The staples are African: xima, the maize porridge eaten with almost everything, cassava, and the greens that become matapa. The technique and much of the vocabulary are Portuguese, which is why you find bread, pastries and grilled fish done properly. And the spice came across the Indian Ocean centuries before the Portuguese did, which is why chamussas are on every corner and why curry appears without ceremony.

The Dishes to Find

Peri-peri chicken. The bird is butterflied, marinated in the small fierce chilli the Portuguese carried between continents, and grilled over coals. The Zambezia version adds coconut milk. It is worth eating more than once, because no two places make it the same.

Matapa. Young cassava leaves pounded with ground peanut, garlic and coconut milk, often with prawn or crab through it. Served with xima or rice. This is the dish to order if you want to understand the country rather than the colony.

Prawns. Maputo's prawns were famous under the city's old name and still are. Grilled, with garlic and peri-peri, and nothing else needed.

Bolo polana. A dense cake of cashew and potato, named after the Polana neighbourhood, and almost unknown outside Mozambique.

The Markets

The Mercado Central in the Baixa is the sensory part: spices, dried fish, cashews by the sack, fruit stacked in pyramids. Go early. The Fish Market at Costa do Sol works differently and is the better lunch: you walk the stalls, buy your fish or prawns by weight, argue politely about the price, then carry them to one of the restaurants behind the market, which cooks them for a fee and serves them with salad, chips and beer. It is the most Mozambican meal available to a visitor and it takes a couple of hours.

What to Drink

The beers are 2M and Laurentina, the second in a dark version worth trying. The national drink, if there is one, is Tipo Tinto rum with a raspberry soft drink, sweet and stronger than it tastes. And the coffee in the old Baixa cafés is served the Portuguese way, short and strong, standing at the counter.

A Note on Street Food

Chamussas, grilled corn and fried cassava from a street cart are part of the city and generally fine if they are hot and freshly made in front of you. Use the same judgement you would anywhere.