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Nile-Side Fry-Up · Fish & Chips

Fried Tilapia & Chips

Fried Tilapia & Chips — street food from Jinja, Uganda
Photo: Sandeepbaliyan1983 / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0

Jinja sits at the exact point where the Nile leaves Lake Victoria, making it one of the few places on earth where a river's first mile supplies its riverside restaurants.

Whole tilapia from Lake Victoria and the Nile is scaled, salted and deep-fried until the skin crisps, then plated with a mound of potato chips, kachumbali salad and greens — the classic lakeside combo sold at fish stalls along Jinja's Nile-side promenade.

Why it's made this way: Jinja's landing sites have supplied fish to the wider region for generations, and fried or grilled tilapia is the city's signature way to serve the day's catch to visitors and locals alike.
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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.