Zimbabwe cuisine is interestingly straightforward and pretty much revolves around staple foods. The most common of which is sadza, a thick porridge made of white maize.
Sadza is to Zimbabweans what rice is to Asians. It is eaten every meal and served with meat, gravy, greens, and beans. It is typically shaped into balls.
If you’re up for an African gastronomical adventure, don’t just stop at sadza. Look for the following:
Mopane worms
Very rich in protein, these would-be moths taste like tea leaves. To give them a flavorful edge, Zimbabweans have them sun dried, fried, and served in sauce.
Eating mopane worms is an adventure in itself. You have to first pinch the tail and squeeze the slimy innards into your mouth. Sometimes there would still be portions of dried leaves in the gut.
Boerewors
It is prepared by mincing beef and spicing it with nutmeg, black pepper, coriander seed, and other spices. The meat mixture is then stuffed into a sausage casing.
Pork is also often added to beef.
Boerewors is usually eaten with sadza. It is normally barbecued but is also sometimes fried.
Biltong
Biltong is similar to the popular jerky, but it lacks the sweet flavor. Beef and game meats are used for this.
The meat is cut into strips and marinated in cider or balsamic vinegar. The meat strips will then be rubbed and sprinkled with spice mixture, which include sugar, salt, black pepper, coriander, and bicarbonate of soda. Finally, they will be dried for several hours to enhance the flavor.
Biltong is usually eaten as snack, but it can also be used for other dishes.
Mapopo candy
Mapopo candy is in fact a well-loved sweet in Zimbabwe. Like any other fruit candy, it is cooked in and dusted with sugar.
This traditional Zimbabwean sweet is a nice meal-ender. It also is something you’d like to munch on while idling your time away in Zimbabwe.
Sour Milk
Sour milk is prepared by fermenting milk in a container. But today, it is readily available in stores. Sour milk tastes like yogurt, so in case you decide to try it with sadza, trust that your taste buds won’t register it as anything foreign.

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