Rice Cakes · Street Breakfast
Vitumbua
Photo: Imaculate / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0
The rice batter needs several hours to ferment before frying, giving vitumbua a faint tang not unlike a sourdough pancake.
Small, fluffy rice-flour cakes are leavened overnight and cooked in a special dimpled pan until the edges turn lacy and crisp. Street sellers fry them fresh each morning in Dar es Salaam's markets and sell them a few coins apiece, wrapped in newspaper for commuters.
Why it's made this way: Made from rice flour, coconut and a touch of sugar, vitumbua reflect the rice-growing and coconut-farming traditions of the Swahili coast, cooked in a dedicated cast pan called a kibumbua found in nearly every street kitchen that sells them.
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Part of World of Street Food — 3248 dishes from 118 countries.
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