Kampala Street Food, Nakasero Market and Ndere Cultural Centre

Kampala's soul lives in its open-air food stalls, stacked tropical fruit markets and traditional music venues. Thanks to fertile volcanic soils and plentiful sunshine around the Lake Victoria basin, Ugandan produce is extraordinarily flavourful, and a morning market walk followed by an evening of traditional drumming is the most joyful way to experience the city.

What to eat in Kampala: the Ugandan rolex, luwombo and matooke

Whether you are grazing along Acacia Avenue (John Babiiha Avenue) in Kololo, walking near Makerere University or sitting in a traditional local restaurant, do not leave Kampala without tasting four signature Ugandan dishes:

• The Ugandan Rolex ("rolled eggs"): born outside Makerere University hostels and now beloved nationwide, a rolex has nothing to do with Swiss watches. A vendor kneads and fries a flaky wheat chapati on a cast-iron skillet, pours a beaten egg omelette tossed with finely shredded cabbage, red onion, tomatoes and green pepper onto the hot iron, lays the chapati on top, and rolls the lot into a warm paper cone. Try a classic roadside stand in Wandegeya or an upgraded version with avocado and sausage in Kololo.
• Oluwombo (Luwombo): created in 1887 by Chef Kawuta for the royal court of Buganda, this slow-cooked feast wraps free-range chicken, beef or mushrooms and smoked fish in a rich purple groundnut (peanut) sauce inside wilted banana leaves tied with plantain fibre and steamed for hours over wood smoke.
• Matooke and Katogo: savoury green highland bananas steamed in banana leaves and mashed into a soft golden mound (matooke), or simmered for breakfast with beef offal or beans in a rich gravy (katogo).
• Nakasero Market tropical fruit: at the foot of Nakasero Hill in a historic 1927 market pavilion, sample sweet miniature apple bananas (sukali ndizi), jackfruit, soursop and giant pineapples.

Uganda Museum, Buganda Road Crafts and Ndere Cultural Centre

Spend an afternoon along Kira Road at the Uganda Museum (founded in 1908, the oldest museum in East Africa), where ethnology attendants play the giant wooden amadinda xylophone and bow harps, and explore the thatched traditional house compound out back. Afterwards, head up to Ntinda for an evening performance at the Ndere Cultural Centre, set in nine acres of tropical gardens where the acclaimed Ndere Troupe performs royal Baganda Bakisimba waist dances, energetic Acholi Bwola drum dances and Ankole long-horned cattle songs under the stars; see how to fit it into our three-day Kampala itinerary.