Indulgences

1. Maandazi

   Maandazi (East African fried dough)

   Usage

   Fried dough of wheat flour, yeast, sugar and oil. The standard breakfast with chai, piled up on stall and cafe counters. Less sweet than a doughnut

   Grammar Note

   ji-/ma- class (5/6): singular "andazi", plural "maandazi". Derived from the verb -andaa ("to prepare"). You buy several, so the plural is what you hear

2. Vitumbua

   Vitumbua (fried rice-flour cakes)

   Usage

   Small round cakes of rice-flour batter, thin at the rim and domed in the middle, sold as a morning snack with tea. On the coast they are made with coconut milk and cardamom

   Grammar Note

   ki-/vi- class (7/8): singular "kitumbua", plural "vitumbua". It is a fried rice-flour snack popular in Tanzania

3. Mahamri

   Mahamri (coconut and cardamom fried bread)

   Usage

   ⚠ Centred on coastal Kenya (Mombasa, Lamu) and Zanzibar. A maandazi enriched with coconut milk and cardamom, eaten at breakfast with mbaazi (pigeon peas in coconut)

   Grammar Note

   ji-/ma- class: singular "hamri", plural "mahamri". "hamri" is a kind of andazi made with coconut and cardamom — a distinct word from "maandazi", naming only this coastal variety

4. Kashata

   Kashata (coconut and peanut brittle)

   Usage

   Grated coconut or peanuts boiled with sugar, set and cut into diamonds or squares. Hawkers at markets and bus stops sell it wrapped in newspaper, often scented with cardamom

   Grammar Note

   N-class, identical in singular and plural. It is a kind of East African candy made with coconut and sugar, borrowed from Arabic "kashta"

5. Halua

   Halua (Zanzibar halva)

   Usage

   ⚠ Centred on Zanzibar and the Swahili coast. A translucent, chewy sweet of starch cooked down with sugar, flavoured with cardamom or saffron and studded with nuts. Given at weddings and on feast days

   Grammar Note

   N-class, identical in singular and plural. Borrowed from Arabic "halwa"; it belongs to the same family written "halva" or "halwa" in English

6. Ubuyu

   Ubuyu (sugar-coated baobab fruit pulp)

   Usage

   The chalky white pulp of the baobab (mbuyu) fruit, coated in coloured sugar and sold in bags on the streets of Zanzibar and Dar es Salaam. Sharply sour, meant to be sucked rather than chewed

   Grammar Note

   A u-class mass noun. The tree is "mbuyu" (m-/mi- class) and the pulp inside is "ubuyu" — the class prefix does the distinguishing. It is a milk-coloured powder, with or without the seeds

7. Konyagi

   Konyagi (Tanzanian sugarcane spirit)

   Usage

   A colourless spirit distilled in Tanzania. It has 35% alcohol; the raw material is sugarcane molasses (molasi ya miwa) left over from sugar production. ⚠ Zanzibar is majority-Muslim and alcohol is sold almost only in hotels and tourist-facing shops; do not drink it in the street or in public

   Grammar Note

   The name comes from French "cognac" although the drink is nothing like it — by its base it is closer to Caribbean rum. Alcohol in general is "pombe" or "kileo"

8. Mbege

   Mbege (Chagga banana beer)

   Usage

   ⚠ The traditional drink of the Chagga of Kilimanjaro region, northern Tanzania: ripe bananas fermented with finger-millet malt (kimea cha ulezi). It is mostly brewed by women and served at weddings, funerals and other gatherings. Mild but alcoholic, and rarely met outside Kilimanjaro

   Grammar Note

   ⚠ Mbege can also mean finger millet, the grain. Its drink meaning belongs to the Tanzanian context.

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