Dried Fish · Lake Kariba
Kapenta (Matemba)
Photo: Simz711 / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0
Because it's sun-dried on open racks, kapenta keeps for months without refrigeration, making it one of the most important protein sources for communities along the Zambezi Valley.
Kapenta are tiny freshwater sardines netted from Lake Kariba, then sun-dried on wooden racks so they keep without refrigeration. Cooks fry the dried fish with onion, tomato and groundnut powder into a salty, savoury stew, almost always eaten with sadza.
Why it's made this way: Lake Kariba's kapenta fishery, introduced in the 1960s after the lake was dammed, turned dried small fish into one of the cheapest and most widely eaten protein sources in Zimbabwe's Zambezi Valley, including the Victoria Falls and Binga areas.
More from Zimbabwe
Chibuku (Shake Shake)
Roasted Maize (Mutandavare)
Vetkoek
Madora (Mopane Worms)
Biltong
Mazondo (Cow Trotters)
Part of World of Street Food — 3248 dishes from 118 countries.
Something wrong here? Tell us in the comments below.
Photo credits.