Table 4 Description of some foods unique to Zimbabwe

Bread, cereal and starches

Sadza

Stiff porridge (prepared from meal of maize, millet, sorghum or rice) and contain a small amount of fibre. The meal of maize is the staple food in Zimbabwe

Samp (Mashakada*)

Boiled maize grain (previously dried), sometimes its degerminated broken grain, pounded and boiled

Mealie Porridge

Ground corn, boiled not too thick, if more is added becomes sadza, other foods can be added like peanut butter (sometimes margarine), sugar (amounts depends on quantity), milk, some people even add bread

Pumpkin Porridge African bread

Mash prepared from cattle melon or pumpkin ingredients: corn flour, egg, sugar and water

Fruits

Baobab

Adansonia digitata

Paw Paw

Carica Papaya, Papaya

Naartjie

Citrus aurantium, Tangerine

Shakata

Parinari Curatellifolia, Mobola Plum

Vegetables

Gourd (dende*)

Lagenaria siceraria, Containe of groundnut butter

Taro

Colacasia antiquorum, Yam

Mowa

Decumbent perennial weed; Amaranthus thunbergii& graecizans (leaves cooked as spinach)

Meat

Caterpillar

Edible caterpillar (dark, with white fur, found on musasa trees. Eaten fried or sun-dried

Matemba, Kapenta Mouse

Small fish caught mostly from lake Kariba Wild mice (not rats or house mice), these are trapped in the wild or fields. Eaten cooked with soup or dried.

Milk and dairy product

Lacto

Commercially produced fermented milk and taste sour