Angolan espetada

Luanda's roadside grills and beach barracas thread beef or goat onto skewers and fire them over charcoal, seasoned with garlic and the local jindungo chilli that stands in for piri-piri. It is a direct heir of Portuguese churrasco culture and is standard weekend fare alongside funge and grilled fish at informal street stalls.

Jindungo is the Angolan name for the small hot chilli used across the country, and the distinction from Mozambican piri-piri is more linguistic than botanical — both belong to the same family of small African bird chillies that Portuguese traders spread around the world. What differs is how Angola uses it: more often raw, in a table sauce, than cooked into a baste.

The marinade is simple and garlic-dominant: crushed garlic, oil, salt, lemon or vinegar and a little jindungo, for a few hours. Angolan grilling is not a heavily spiced tradition and the emphasis falls on the fire and the accompanying sauce rather than on the meat's seasoning.

Grilling is over charcoal at moderate heat with regular turning. Goat, which is common and cheap, needs the longer end of the cook and benefits from a slightly acidic marinade; beef takes less. The jindungo sauce — chilli, garlic, oil, sometimes lemon — is made separately and served on the side.

Beef or goat in three-centimetre cubes with fat left on. Goat from a younger animal if possible, since the marinade is light. Jindungo or any small hot chilli — bird's-eye works well.

Garlic in quantity, oil, salt, lemon or vinegar. Funge — the cassava or maize porridge — is the traditional starch, though bread and chips are both common at street stalls. A tomato-and-onion salad, and the jindungo sauce on the side.

Off the skewer with funge, chips or bread, a tomato-and-onion salad and jindungo sauce on the side. Cuca beer. At a beach barraca on a weekend it is ordered by the stick alongside grilled fish, and the meal stretches over an afternoon.