Chipsi mayai (
Swahili for "chips and eggs"), also known as zege, is the most popular street food found all over
Tanzania
Tanzania, officially the United Republic of Tanzania, is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It is bordered by Uganda to the northwest; Kenya to the northeast; the Indian Ocean to the east; Mozambique and Malawi to t ...
. The dish was invented in the streets of
Dar es Salaam
Dar es Salaam (, ; from ) is the largest city and financial hub of Tanzania. It is also the capital of the Dar es Salaam Region. With a population of over 7 million people, Dar es Salaam is the largest city in East Africa by population and the ...
. In its most basic form, chipsi mayai is a simple
potato
The potato () is a starchy tuberous vegetable native to the Americas that is consumed as a staple food in many parts of the world. Potatoes are underground stem tubers of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'', a perennial in the nightshade famil ...
-
egg
An egg is an organic vessel grown by an animal to carry a possibly fertilized egg cell (a zygote) and to incubate from it an embryo within the egg until the embryo has become an animal fetus that can survive on its own, at which point the ...
omelette
An omelette (sometimes omelet in American English; see spelling differences) is a dish made from eggs (usually chicken eggs), fried with butter or oil in a frying pan. It is a common practice for an omelette to include fillings such as chiv ...
. It is available in all regions of Tanzania, from the most remote
villages
A village is a human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban village ...
to large
town
A town is a type of a human settlement, generally larger than a village but smaller than a city.
The criteria for distinguishing a town vary globally, often depending on factors such as population size, economic character, administrative stat ...
s. Food stands both indoors and on streets make them to order. It is the unofficial national dish of the country.
It is generally prepared with chips (French fries), oil and beaten eggs fried together in a pan. It is often served with
kachumbari
Kachumbari is a fresh tomato and onion salad relish that is popular in the cuisines of the African Great Lakes region. It is an uncooked salad dish consisting of chopped tomatoes, onions, and chili peppers. Variations of kachumbari can be found ...
or ''pili-pili'', which can be any type of hot sauce.
See also
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List of egg dishes
This is a list of notable egg dishes and beverages. Egg as food, Eggs are laid by females of many different species, including bird egg, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish, and have been eaten by humans for thousands of years.Kenneth F. Kiple, ...
*
References
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Omelettes
Potato dishes
Tanzanian cuisine
{{Tanzania-cuisine-stub