← Back to globe
🍽️ Browse 📸 Community
Miombo Woodland · Dry-Season Protein

Chenilles (Fried Caterpillars)

Chenilles (Fried Caterpillars) — street food from Lubumbashi, DR Congo
Photo: Serein / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 1.0

Dried caterpillars pack roughly three times the protein and four times the iron of beef by weight, which is exactly why they're sold as a genuine protein staple rather than a novelty snack.

Caterpillars gathered from Katanga's miombo woodlands during the rainy season are boiled, sun-dried and pan-fried with onion, garlic and chili; the dried version is reconstituted and sold year-round in market stalls, either as a snack or stirred into a sauce over bukari.

Why it's made this way: The copperbelt's dry-season woodlands produce a reliable annual glut of edible caterpillar species, and drying them turned a short seasonal windfall into a shelf-stable protein source that keeps markets supplied through the rest of the year.
Read it in context →

More from DR Congo

🍺 Primus Brochettes Liboke (de Poisson) Chikwangue (Kwanga) Mikate (Congolese Beignets) Poulet à la Moambe (Chicken in Palm Nut Sauce)
Part of World of Street Food — 3248 dishes from 118 countries. Something wrong here? Tell us in the comments below. Photo credits.