Picture the best mixture of Indian and Portuguese food. Now spice it up with a bit of Arab influence. And finally, pick only the freshest, most natural ingredients you can find (mostly seafood and vegetables). There you go, that is what you will find in the best Mozambique dishes.
With more than 3000 km of Indian Ocean coastline, Mozambican gastronomy blends the flavours and aromas of spices from Goa in India, from Portugal and from the Arab world, turning the art of cooking into a feast of sensations and perfumes.
In the best Mozambique dishes you may find Goan flavours
The Indian and Goan influence has been important in everyday Mozambican eating habits, in dishes such as chamussas, chacuti, achár and piri-piri (the chilli pepper, as we call it here).
Matapa with xima, chicken à cafreal, our national prawns, Zambezian chicken.
Xima is a very fine white cornmeal to which water is added to turn it into a kind of white polenta that goes with wet dishes like matapa. Matapa uses cassava leaves, resulting in a stew filled with the scent of coconut, the aromas of spices and the texture of peanuts. Cabbage leaves are cut thin and joined with the shrimp, always with the addition of coconut milk, to make one of the dishes we most enjoy: macofo, also known as macouve.
Everything from the cassava is used: the leaves for the mapata, the pulp for the xiguinha (a stew made with peanuts and chicken), and local industries now bet on the cassava beer produced here. Cassava plays a very significant role in the everyday Mozambican diet thanks to its low cost and good nutritional value, and it is eaten cooked or even raw.
Mozambique dishes usually show a fusion of aromas, shaped by Portuguese and Oriental influences. The scent of curry, pepper in snacks, the famous samosas or chamussas (a typical Indian snack folded into a triangle shape), rissóis or rissoles give us the certainty of this mixture of peoples, of acceptance, of the peaceful coexistence between the food traditions of every corner.
And then there is the simple roasted chicken. The one here is so good it brings you to your knees, because it is prepared with plenty of lemon juice, sometimes coconut milk and/or piri-piri, resulting in a crunchy, aromatic, tender and simple roasted chicken.
Here you will also find mfura, palm oil (almost a palm), which can even be used to prepare beans, added with coconut and coriander, as well as in stews and seafood.
Among the best Mozambique dishes, stews are very popular. They are known as caril (cooked with curry-based spices), and can be made with chicken, fish or leaves. They are a national favourite, naturally served with xima, white rice or chips.
Also very common are chestnuts and local peanuts, whether as appetisers or in the desserts made with them.
Let us not forget the fruit. The most delicious mangoes you can find are here in Mozambique. Huge, tasty avocados, juicy lychees and so many other fruits, some of them unique, such as the banana maçã, a small banana-shaped fruit that tastes a little like apples.
There is a wide variety to choose from in Mozambique when it comes to food. But the best part is savouring the freshness of the vegetables and seafood, and the many flavours of the spices.