Food & Drink

Cuisine of Somalia varies from region to region and it encompasses different styles of cooking. The staple diet in Somalia is rice, macaroni or spaghetti with a little sauce (a legacy from Italian colonial days), or spiced mutton or kid. Local seafood is also available.

Somali food is halal (no pork dishes).

Breakfast (Quraac)

Canjeero (a thin, flat bread)
Malawax (a sweetened, oily version of canjeero)
Shakshuka (eggs cooked with onions and tomatoes)
Fried liver of goat, sheep or camel with onions
Suqaar (beef cut in small and cooked in soup)
Boorash (porridge with butter and sugar)
Pancakes
Githeri (sautéed beans eaten with a loaf of bread)

Lunch (Qado)

Rice (flavoured with herbs and spices such as cumin, cardamom, cloves, cinnamon and sage)
Iskudhexkaris (a mixed rice and vegetable - and sometimes meat - dish)
Maraq (stew)
Buskeeti (steak)
Kaluun (fish)
Soor (cornmeal mashed with fresh milk, butter and sugar) often served with maraq
Sabaayad (a variation of the Indian chapatti, slightly sweet)
Baasto (pasta) often served with maraq or even banana

Dinner

Cambuulo (slow-cooked azuki beans (digir), mixed with butter and sugar)
Qamadi (slow-cooked wheat mixed with butter and sugar)
Muufo (a type of cornbread made of maize and is baked in foorno (clay oven). It is eaten by cutting it into small pieces, adding macsaro (Sesame oil), sugar and mashing it with black tea).

Snacks

Sambuus (a Somali version of the South Asian samosa, with ground meat and spiced with hot green pepper)
Bajiye (a variation of the Indian pakora, made using a mixture of maize, vegetables, meat, spices and then deep fried. It is eaten by dipping in bisbaas, a hot sauce).

Desserts

Xalwo (hardened Somali jelly)
Gashaato or qumbe (made by boiling sugar and water, and flavoured with shredded coconut and cardamom)
Loos iyo sisin (a mixture of peanuts (loos) and sesame seeds (sisin) in a bed of caramel)
Jalaato (similar to an ice lolly - with the word coming from the Italian word for frozen, gelato)
Biskut (many styles of buisuits, including soft ones called daardaar)