Southern Africa · Street food
Makoenya (Basotho Fried Yeast Dough Cakes)
Golden, cloud-soft Basotho fried dough cakes with a crisp golden exterior and fluffy crumb, iconic to Lesotho street stalls.
The story
Makoenya are ubiquitous across the taxi ranks of Maseru, roadside trading posts, and village tea shacks across Lesotho. Served scalding hot straight from cast-iron vats of bubbling oil, they are the indispensable breakfast accompaniment to black tea or morning motoho. Unlike flat vetkoek or spherical puff-puff, traditional Basotho makoenya use a wetter, highly hydrated yeast batter scooped by hand directly into the oil, producing their characteristic pillowy, irregular contours and exceptionally tender crumb.
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