One of the things we like the most about traveling and living in different countries is trying new foods and new tastes. In Angola and Angolan cuisine, we discovered a whole new world of different flavors, textures, and ingredients we had never tried before, like Funge, Okra, Kizaca, Muamba, Mukua…
We are not experts, only foodies, but we are some experience with different cuisines around the world, like Portuguese, Bulgarian, and Thai. This article shares some of our favorite Angolan dishes and ingredients.
Overall, Angolan food is a mix of African and Portuguese food because of the huge historical context between the countries. In recent years, Brazilian food has influenced Angolan gastronomy, which was originally strongly influenced by African food.
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Ingredients of Angola Food
The main staple ingredients of Angolan food include flour, beans and rice, fish (and seafood), pork and chicken, and several vegetables such as sweet potato, plantains, tomatoes, onions, and okra. However, the most important is obviously Cassava.
Cassava
Cassava is a very important plant in Angola, especially in the North. It is the largest source of carbohydrates in Angola. Angola is the 3rd largest producer of cassava in Africa and is also the biggest consumer. The roots are dried to make bombó and whipped to make fuba (flour).
Kizaca
The cassava leaves are called kizaca and are used in a few dishes, usually boiled.
Dendém
Dendém is the fruit of the palm tree, and it is used a lot in Angolan cuisine, especially as palm oil. Beans with palm oil are one of our favorite side dishes in Angola.
Ginguba
Ginguba (peanuts) is a widely used ingredient in Angolan cuisine. It can be eaten toasted, or with sugar (paracuca). Or used in sauces or as a side dish.
Gindungo
Gindungo are small chili peppers often used in Angolan dishes. They are not originally from Angola but from South America, but they are abundant in Angola. The Portuguese introduced them to Angola, probably from Brazil.
Nowadays, gindungo sauce can be found in Portuguese supermarkets. One of the most internationally known versions is the peri-peri sauce.
Angolan Street Food
Ginguba torrada (roasted peanuts)
Angolan cuisine uses ginguba (peanut) a lot in main dishes and desserts, and it’s wonderful, just like a snack with a cold drink—especially roasted!
You can roast ginguba at home in the oven or buy it on the street, where vendors roast it in coal right in front of you. Finally, many Angolan Restaurants serve Ginguba Torada as an appetizer.
Ginguba torrada is absolutely delicious and one of the things you must eat in Angola.
Paracuca
Paracuca is ginguba with sugar, sometimes with variation, cinnamon, vanilla or jindungo (hot spice). You can find women selling it in the streets in small plastic bags.
Paracuca can easily be done at home: 2 cups of ginguba, 1 cup of sugar, and a tea cup of water. Mix all the ingredients in a pan and stir until the water evaporates. In the end, you can join cinnamon or spice. Let cool down and separate the peanuts so they don’t glue each other.
Picolé
Picolé is an ice cream that boys sell in a trolley car on the street, especially when it’s hot and in between the crazy traffic.
Banana Assada (toasted banana/ roasted plantain)
In Angola, there is a wide variety of bananas, plantain, red bananas, and apple bananas. Plantain is used in many dishes and as a side dish replacing potatoes or rice. When ripe, it is sweet and delicious. Roasted or fried banana with honey is delicious dessert.
Bombó Assado (grilled cassava)
Bombó is the root of cassava, dried and fermented. It’s used to make funge (a typical Angola plate made with cassava flour). It can be toasted or fried and sold as a snack, but is more frequently used as a side dish.
Main Dishes of the Angolan Cuisine
Mufete of fish
One of the most typical foods of Angola, and our favorite dish in Angolan Cuisine, is the mufete, The dish is a combination of grilled fish, beans with palm oil, boiled plantains, boiled sweet potato, cassava flour, and the mufete sauce (a sauce with chopped onion, tomato, bell pepper, lemon, and olive oil). It is a flavorful and must-try for everyone going to Angola!
In our opinion, it is best eaten in Chicala! We went there a few times, and it was delicious.
Muamba de Galinha de Angola or Galinha Rija (Moambe chicken)
Slow-cooked chicken with okra, squash, and dendém paste. It’s cooked for one hour and is served with funge. This stew-like dish links very well with funge. The strong Moamba sauce gives flavor to the very mild Cassava funge. This dish is also well known in Gabon and Congo, where it is considered the national dish.
There’s also Muamba fish, but it’s not as well known and seen.
Funge – Cassava flour porridge
This is the base of the Angolan diet, and it’s eaten almost every day by Angolans. Funge is made of fuba (flour) of cassava or corn.
The north of Angola uses more fuba of cassava, and the south uses fuba of corn. The texture of funge is very sticky and doesn’t have much flavor, so it’s best eaten with the sauce.
Frango de churrasco with piri-piri (BBQ chicken)
Portugal is often associated with barbecue chicken with chilli but the truth is that this recipe originates from Angola and Mozambique. It became popular in Portugal in the 60’s as many Portuguese who live in these countries returned to Portugal and brought the recipe. Opening barbecue places that everyone loves.
Barbecue chicken is a simple but delicious recipe, in which the secret of the recipe is the Piripiri sauce. The sauce is made with gindungo (spicy), butter, lemon juice, garlic and paprika.
In Angola, this dish is also known as chicken on the rim because it is often roasted on the street on top of a rim.
Calulu de peixe (fish calulu)
Fish Calulu is a typical Angolan and São Tomé and Principe dish. It’s cooked with dried and fresh fish, okra, tomato, sweet potato leaves, and palm oil. It is served with funge and beans in palm oil.
Lagosta (lobster)
This is not as much as a typical Angolan dish, but there is so much lobster, and it is so good in Angola that we decided to include it in the list of things to eat in Angola. Grilled or just boiled, it is so good!
Desserts of Angola Cuisine
Passionfruit Mousse
We know it is not that traditional (or at least unique to Angola), and there are many other places that have good passion fruit mousse! But this dessert is served everywhere in Angola, and it tastes very good.
The passion fruits themselves are impressive, huge even! We had never seen such big passion fruits before.
Mukua Mousse
Mukua is the fruit of the Baobab tree, but it is a fruit with a hard shell like a coconut. Inside, there are seeds, which are coated with whitish powder. This powder is the fruit pulp that is used to produce the juice, ice cream, and mousse.
You can easily make mukua juice at home. We only have to join the dried mukua with water, add sugar, and let it rest for hours, then filter it. It’s very refreshing.
Cocada Amarela (Yelow Cocada)
Cocada Amarela is a typical sweet from Angola, but it is also common in Latin America.
It is a sweet made with toasted grated coconut, egg yolks, sugar, cloves, and water. However, several recipes have other ingredients, such as coconut milk and condensed milk. There is also the black and white cocada.
It is a very sweet dessert that melts in your mouth, but also has a crunchy side due to the coconut.
Fruits
One of the best things to eat in Angola is Fruit. Angolan fruit is amazing, particularly the tropical ones. Bananas, pineapples, and mangos, in particular, are unbelievably tasty, juicy, and sweet.
Top Tip
Buy fruits in the street; they are usually better, and you are probably helping someone who needs it.
