The dusty streets of Mozambique's capital offer a buffet of versatile street food for your pleasure.
Picked, or prepared, fresh and ready to eat. Maputo is decorated with makeshift stalls and street side kitchens that offer the humblest fare in the city. A true labour of love, most of the food is compliments of elderly women wanting to make ends meet, or mothers hoping to provide for their families. The vendors offer everything from organically grown fruit and vegetables to meat cooked over an open fire.
Though we had a culinary itinerary, my travel partner and I couldn't resist stopping for a street side bite every once in a while. Not only were we supporting local entrepreneurs, we were coming to understand the food culture of the charming city.
It is believed that food is the ingredient that binds us together. When sitting cross-legged around a crackling fire one day, while a Mozambican mama – not much older than my mother – prepares a type of shwarma for me, this becomes clear.
Though communication is minimal, because she can't speak English and my Portuguese is pathetic, the connection we make over food speaks volumes. The plastic crate the Mozambican mama sits on sinks from, what I assume would be, years spent stirring pots of stew, boiling vegetables and making bread.
Her calloused palms lift the scorching lids of potjie pots with ease.
I never ask her name, and the Mozambican mama preparing my meal allows me my anonymity too. In the culture of Ubuntu I have come to visit this maternal figure, and she has fed me like she would her own child. If I had come to her cold, she would've bathed me. Had I come to her wounded, she would have tended to my injuries and nursed me back to health. Ubuntu, the unspoken African culture of togetherness , community and family. Ubuntu, the reason I fell in love with Mozambique the first time I visited six years ago.
The street vendors we pass give us a sense of the city. Everywhere we go, we are greeted with hospitality. The vendors are always willing to bargain with us, slide us an extra serving of whatever they have, and even suggest another vendor who might have what we are looking for. Everyone carries on like family in Maputo. We may have only arrived that week, and we are leaving in a few days, we feel like we form part of the family too.
Pick a mango from the tree growing on the sidewalk, or stop for a coconut water and tequila cocktail leaving the Maputo Fish Market.
The city has a smorgasbord of street side food options for you to enjoy, whether you're on the go or you're looking for your fill of no frill, all flavour fare.
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I enjoyed such a delicious food tour of Maputo, Mozambique and I want to share it with all of you. A few new friends I made invited me over for home cooked meal and I tried Matapa for the first time. If you love it as much as I do, try the recipe at home.