Katangese Staple · Copperbelt Table

Bukari na Nyama (Maize Fufu with Meat)

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Katanga's maize fufu is noticeably smoother than the cassava-based fufu eaten in Kinshasa — a texture locals trace to the Bemba and Zambian milling traditions that cross the nearby copperbelt border.

White maize meal is stirred steadily into boiling water until it thickens into a smooth, stretchy dough called bukari, then served alongside stewed meat or Thomson fish (a small mackerel) and greens, torn off by hand to scoop up the sauce.

Why it's made this way: Katanga's plateau climate favors maize farming over the cassava that dominates western DRC, and centuries of trade across the nearby Zambian border built a Swahili- and Bemba-influenced food culture that set the region's fufu apart from the rest of the country.

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Part of World of Street Food — 3248 dishes from 118 countries. Something wrong here? Tell us in the comments below. Photo credits.