East Africa · Street food
Kochekoche (Charred Fresh Sweet Corn on the Cob)
Crisp-tender Malawian green harvest sweet corn roasted over glowing coals and seasoned with tangy salt and chili.
The story
During the green harvest season (chinangwa/dzinja) across Malawi, bustling roadsides from Lilongwe to Blantyre fill with the fragrant smoke of Kochekoche vendors roasting freshly plucked cobs over charcoal brazier braziers called mbaula. Loved by travelers, workers, and school children alike, this quintessential street food celebrates the seasonal bounty of white dent or flint corn. A traditional vendor technique involves dipping a fresh lime wedge directly into coarse lake salt and crushed chili powder to baste the smoking kernels immediately as they come off the red-hot embers.
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