Machete-Cracked · Zanzibar Coconut Water
Madafu
Photo: kungu irungu / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0
Vendors hack the top off the coconut with a machete right in front of you, so the water goes straight from the shell to your mouth without ever touching a cup.
Madafu is the water inside a young, still-green coconut, served straight from the shell with the top sliced open. Street vendors with carts and beachside stalls sell it across Zanzibar and coastal Tanzania as an instant, all-natural cooldown.
Why it's made this way: Coconut palms line the Tanzanian coast and islands, and madafu grew naturally out of that abundance into one of the simplest, most trusted street refreshments in the region.
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Part of World of Street Food — 3443 dishes from 118 countries.
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