Nshima, Zambian Cooking and the Lower Zambezi Gateway

A Zambian proverb holds that until you have eaten nshima, you have only had a snack. In Lusaka, traditional lunchtime kitchens known as matebeto serve heaped platters of slow-cooked relishes and river fish, while the Great South Road drops straight off the highland plateau to the canoe channels of the mighty Zambezi River just three hours away.

What to eat in Lusaka: nshima, ifisashi, chikanda and bream

Whether you pull up a chair at a lively open-air lunch spot like Matebeto at Thornpark or EastPark, or order at a garden restaurant in Kabulonga or Longacres, look for six signature Zambian dishes:

• Nshima: finely ground white maize meal (mealie meal) stirred into boiling water with a wooden paddle (mpokoso) until thick and smooth. Roll a small ball in the palm of your right hand, press a thumb indentation into the middle, and use it to scoop up two or three accompanying relishes (ndiwo).
• Ifisashi (greens in pounded groundnut sauce): pumpkin leaves (chibwabwa), sweet-potato leaves (kalembula) or rape simmered with raw, freshly pounded peanuts, tomatoes and onions into a rich, creamy vegetarian stew.
• Chikanda ("African polony"): a uniquely Zambian delicacy from the northern plateau made by pounding wild terrestrial orchid tubers with roasted groundnuts, chilli and baking soda, then baking the mixture until it sets into a firm, savoury sliceable loaf eaten hot or cold.
• Kafue or Kariba bream and Kapenta: whole tilapia bream split and grilled crisp over charcoal or pan-fried, alongside tiny dried kapenta sardines from Lake Tanganyika or Lake Kariba sizzled with onions and tomatoes.
• Village chicken and T-bone braai: free-range chicken slow-simmered in its own broth, or flame-grilled Zambian beef served with cold Mosi Lager or sweet fermented maize drink (munkoyo, brewed with wild rhynchosia roots).

From Lusaka to the Lower Zambezi and Kafue

Lusaka's greatest geographical bonus is how quickly you can trade city streets for big-game river wilderness. Driving south-east from Lusaka down the dramatic Zambezi Escarpment takes just two and a half to three hours to reach Chirundu and the Chiawa Game Management Area on the banks of the Lower Zambezi. Here, riverside lodges run half-day to multi-day canoe safaris drifting silently down sandy channels past wallowing hippos, basking crocodiles and bull elephants feeding on winterthorn pods, while 30-minute bush flights from Kenneth Kaunda Airport land directly inside Lower Zambezi National Park or west at Kafue National Park.