Ugandan food is hearty, starchy, and built to fuel long days. It is not the most celebrated cuisine in East Africa, but it has genuine character, and the street food is excellent.
Matooke is the national dish -- green bananas (plantains) steamed in banana leaves until soft, then mashed into a dense, starchy mound. It is served with almost everything and you will encounter it at nearly every meal. It tastes better than it sounds, especially when paired with a rich groundnut sauce or slow-cooked beef stew.
Rolex is Uganda's greatest street food invention. A chapati wrapped around a fried egg omelette with tomatoes, onions, and cabbage -- the name comes from "rolled eggs." You will find rolex vendors on every street corner in Kampala and throughout the country. They cost about 2,000-3,000 UGX (under a dollar) and make a perfect breakfast or snack.
Luwombo is the dish to seek out for a special meal. Meat, chicken, or fish is steamed in banana leaves with groundnut sauce, mushrooms, and vegetables. The banana leaf packet seals in the flavor and aroma. It is slow food in the best sense and is traditionally served at celebrations.
Groundnuts (peanuts) are everywhere -- roasted and sold in paper cones on the street, ground into sauce for stews, or made into paste. Groundnut sauce on matooke or posho (maize porridge) is the default cheap meal across the country.
Nsenene (grasshoppers) appear in markets during the rainy season, fried and salted. They are a genuine delicacy and surprisingly tasty -- crispy, nutty, and addictive. If you see them, try them.
For drinks, Nile Special is the national beer and a perfectly decent lager. Bell is the other popular brand. Fresh fruit juice is available everywhere -- passion fruit, mango, and pineapple. Ugandan coffee is world-class (the country is a major Robusta producer), and a growing specialty coffee scene in Kampala showcases the best of it. Local banana beer (tonto) and banana gin (waragi) are the traditional drinks -- waragi is potent and should be approached with caution.