Rwanda

A savory East African stew of unripe green plantains simmered in a tomato-and-onion sauce with oil until the plantains are fully tender and saturated with the broth.

A Rwandan street food of pork spare ribs marinated in a simple aromatic paste and grilled slowly over live charcoal until the exterior is charred and the fat rendered.

A Rwandan everyday staple of slow-stewed kidney beans paired with separately boiled unripe green plantain, together delivering the foundational protein-and-starch balance of the national diet.

Rwandan brochettes are cubed meat — most canonically goat, but also beef, offal, or chicken — threaded on skewers and grilled over live charcoal until charred at the edges and smoky through, served hot off the grill at roadside brochetteries.

Whole maize cobs boiled or roasted over coals and eaten on the cob as a popular Rwandan street snack.

A thick, non-alcoholic sorghum porridge-drink, lightly sweetened and served warm or cool, common as a breakfast or nourishing beverage in Burundi and Rwanda.

A traditional Rwandan fermented sorghum beer, opaque and mildly alcoholic, drunk communally through straws.

Rwandan goat meat, grilled over coals as skewers or stewed, an everyday and convivial protein eaten across the country.

Rwandan beef — the prestige feast meat — cut into pieces and grilled or braised with simple seasoning for celebratory gatherings.

A thick, stiff Rwandan porridge of sorghum or maize flour cooked with water into a firm starch that is eaten as the staple foundation of a meal.

A slow-cooked East African stew of pounded or finely shredded cassava leaves simmered at length with ground peanuts, onions, and palm oil until the leaves collapse into a dense, dark-green, unctuous mass.

A staple East African dish of peeled unripe East African Highland bananas steamed inside tightly sealed banana-leaf parcels until soft, then mashed in place into a dense, starchy, pale-yellow loaf.

Deep-fried chunks of ripe plantain, crisp and golden outside and sweet and soft inside, eaten as a snack or side across the Great Lakes region.

Tiny silver sardines from Lake Kivu fried whole until crisp and eaten entirely — heads, bones and all — as a Rwandan lakeside specialty.

Ugali is a dense, cohesive stiff porridge made by working maize meal into boiling water over high heat until the mass pulls cleanly from the pot and holds its shape when molded by hand.

A soft staple porridge of cassava flour and corn (maize) flour cooked together, smoother and softer than the stiff ubugali.

Urwagwa is a traditional East African fermented banana beer produced by manually pressing ripe bananas to extract their juice, combining it with sorghum malt as a fermentation catalyst, and allowing it to ferment briefly into a low-alcohol, slightly cloudy, effervescent drink.