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Fried Dough · Sweet Snack

Mandazi

Mandazi — street food from Ndola, Zambia
Photo: Paresh Jai / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 2.0

Many mandazi recipes use coconut milk in the dough instead of dairy, a trace of the snack's origins on East Africa's Swahili coast.

Lightly sweetened, cardamom- or coconut-scented dough is deep-fried into pillowy triangles or rounds, sold hot from trays at bus stations, markets and the Ndola trade fair. They're eaten on the go or dunked in tea.

Why it's made this way: Mandazi travelled inland from East Africa's Swahili coast along historic trade routes and is now fried fresh every morning by street vendors across Copperbelt towns as a cheap, filling breakfast and snack.
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Part of World of Street Food — 3443 dishes from 118 countries. Something wrong here? Tell us in the comments below. Photo credits.