Snack · Fried Pastry

Chamuças (Mozambican Samosas)

Photo: Adrião / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 3.0

This 'Indian' snack became Mozambican because Goa and Mozambique were both Portuguese colonies at the same time.

Triangular pastries stuffed with spiced meat, fish, or vegetables and deep-fried until crisp, chamuças are sold hot off the pan by street vendors in Maputo and Inhambane. Eaten by hand, often with piri-piri sauce on the side.

Why it's made this way: Mozambique has a long-established Indian community, a legacy of centuries of Indian Ocean trade and of Portugal ruling Goa and Mozambique at the same time, and the samosa traveled the routes between them.