the zambian food series, part three: chikanda
chikanda is made from the ground, dried tubers of wild orchids — specifically, species of the genus disa and related genera — that grow in the miombo woodland of northern province, muchinga province, and parts of luapula province. these orchids — small, inconspicuous plants whose aerial parts give no hint of the starchy tubers growing beneath the surface — are dug up by hand from the woodland floor during the dry season, when the aerial parts have died back and only the experienced eye can locate them by the residual stem and the knowledge of where they grow. the tubers are dried, then ground into a fine white flour.
the ground orchid flour is mixed with groundnut powder — the peanut paste that is the foundation of so much of northern zambian cooking — water, and in some preparations bicarbonate of soda, and cooked over heat. as the mixture heats, it firms up — not into a soft, yielding porridge like nshima, but into a firm, elastic, sliceable cake. dense, uniformly coloured, capable of being cut into neat slices — earning it the name african polony, because its appearance and protein content resemble processed meat. the taste, however, is entirely its own — earthy, slightly nutty, with a specific flavour from the orchid tubers that no other ingredient in zambian cooking produces.
chikanda is sold in markets across zambia — from kasama to lusaka, from ndola to chipata — sliced and wrapped, eaten as a snack or as a relish alongside nshima. one of the most widely traded and most distinctively zambian processed foods.
the ecological dimension the food series must name: the wild orchids from which chikanda is made are not farmed. they are harvested from the wild. commercial demand — as chikanda became popular across zambia rather than being confined to the north — has increased pressure on wild orchid populations in the miombo woodland. the long-term future of chikanda as a sustainable zambian food requires management that the current market incentives do not fully provide. the food and conservation communities in zambia are actively engaging with this question.
chikanda. made from a wild orchid. in the miombo woodland. ground into flour. cooked with peanuts. sliced and eaten across a nation.
one of the most extraordinary foods in africa — and almost entirely unknown outside zambia.
the zambian food series continues. 🍲
