Southern Africa · Street food
Badjias (Spiced Black-Eyed Pea Fritters)
Golden and crisp Mozambican spiced black-eyed pea fritters with a fluffy interior, seasoned with fragrant garlic, cumin, and fiery chilies.
The story
Badjias are Mozambique's most ubiquitous and iconic street food snack, sold on lively urban street corners from Maputo to Nampula by street vendors known as badjieiras. Eaten during the late afternoon as an energizing snack or tucked inside a warm, crusty 'pãozinho' bread roll with fiery peri-peri oil, they define daily culinary life. Derived from the Indian Goan diaspora's bhajias, this Afro-Lusophone adaptation uses native black-eyed peas (feijão frade) whose skins must be peeled through water soaking to yield a feather-light fritter.
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