FOOD - The African Mirror

Mar

27

2026

How a “Digital Chef” is changing the culinary game

FOOD

THE heavy, sweet scent of marinated chicken sizzling on a barbecue grill signals the start of the MeatUp Fest in Limuru, Kenya. At the centre of a spiral of smoke is 27-year-old Sarah Sandra, known to thousands of her digital followers as “Chef Sandie Burnie." She moves with practised focus, religiously coating each piece of meat with the precision of someone who knows that in the world of "low and slow" barbecue, patience is the ultimate ingredient. Sandra isn’t wearing the starched white apron of a high-end kitchen, nor is she waiting for any head chef’s orders. Instead, she is…

Jan

05

2026

By DEVIN SMART

Street food in Mombasa: how city life shaped the modern meal

FOOD

AS Kenya’s cities grew, more and more people left their rural homes and subsistence farming systems to go to urban settlements like Mombasa to find work. In the city, meals were paid for with cash, a major transformation in Kenya’s food systems. A new book called Preparing the Modern Meal is an urban history that explores these processes. We asked historian Devin Smart about his study. What’s the colonial history of Mombasa? At the turn of the 20th century, the British were expanding their empire throughout sub-Saharan Africa, including the parts of East Africa that would become Kenya. They built…

Oct

22

2024

By The African Mirror

The Clocktober Rush. Is it worth it?

FOOD

WHAT'S all the fuss about October in South Africa? Everyone is run off their feet, sweating the small stuff, breathing heavily, jumping hula hoops. Somehow October seems to be the ‘red flag’ of months, where stress indicators fly off the charts, as we beat our deadline drums and rush around the clock in a frazzled fiasco to December. From school obligations to deadlines and daily admin, we’re on the clock. But who’s clock is it anyway? Our own. And we’re wasting it on too many ‘to-do’s’ and not enough ‘to-be’s’. This is why I take lunch. I believe in the…

May

15

2024

By LERATO MOGOATLHE, BIRD STORY AGENCY

African street food

FOOD

TAKE a stroll around any city in the continent and you’ll soon discover that the continent loves to eat good food - more so if it fits in your hands, is served on the go and is packed with flavour, from subtle and spicy to bold and fiery. Here is a list of some popular African street food dishes and where to eat them: 1. Zanzibar barbeque, fried seafood and pizza: Sunset at Forodhani Gardens, Stone Town. This is why eating in Zanzibar is exciting. For the group of boys who curl their bodies into balls as they dive into…

May

07

2024

By The African Mirror

VIDEO: Charity Adupong is redefining Ghanaian cuisine

FOOD, MULTIMEDIA

FOR years, Charity Adupong's shopping experiences were marked with disappointment as she searched for nutritious local foods in major shopping malls and retail stores. The few that were on the shelves lacked attractive packaging. Increasingly she realised that a huge opportunity existed in providing shoppers with well-packaged indigenous foods. She decided to tap into the growing demand. “I didn’t like the way our markets are structured. We openly display food with flies flying all over. And then there is the one on the floor, the ones that are stored later aftermarket and just stored anyhow. So I wanted to do…

Apr

20

2024

By IRIS PACHECO, BIRD STORY AGENCY

This popular Brazilian street food is a delicious link to its African heritage

FOOD

LIVELY conversation blends with the rhythmic sizzle of hot oil in Itapuã, a neighbourhood near the coastal city of Salvador in Bahia State, northern Brazil. The golden brown fritters Ivana Muzenza makes at her stall, known locally as Acarajé, represent more than a tasty snack. Muzenza is a “Baiana”, a Portuguese word that describes an exclusive community of Bahian women who sell street food while dressed in traditional attire; typically a white flowing lace dress, beaded necklaces, and jewellery, with colourful headscarves. Muzenza’s great-great-grandmother arrived in the region towards the end of the Transatlantic Slave Trade. She became a "Ganhadeira…

Jan

18

2024

By MMAPULA MOLAPONG, BIRD STORY AGENCY

She’s tapping traditional food culture to grow business for herself and her country

FOOD

"MY memories of food are very powerful. My earliest memory dates back to when I was about eight years old. I absolutely adored going to the farm with my grandmother, we used to get up really early in the morning on weekends to harvest vegetables, sorghum and maize,” said Ompelege Moreosele, who is better known both in Botswana and South Africa as a food entrepreneur and author, Chef Cathy. So powerful were those memories that finding herself working as a receptionist after studying advertising, she chose to quit and start again, this time following her passion. Today, gathering ingredients from…

Mar

01

2023

By The African Mirror

How a vegan restaurant in Senegal is finding its footing in a meat-and fish-loving country

LIFESTYLE, FOOD

MARIA KNODT, BIRD STORY AGENCY FRESHLY painted on the front of a bright, yellow-and-green building nestled between several restaurants on Pointe des Almadies, the westernmost point of the African continent, is the slogan 'The Future is Green', The sign is large enough to be read from far down the Pointe - which offers stunning views of the Atlantic Ocean - ensuring patrons can easily find their way to Senegal's first and only fully vegan restaurant, Casa Teranga. Staff at the restaurant serve customers five to six vegan dishes, daily. These include local specialities like Mafe and Yassa. But instead of…