What Tanzanian street food is a potato-and-egg omelette made with fries?

Chipsi mayai is the Tanzanian street food made by frying French fries with beaten eggs into a potato-and-egg omelette.

Its Swahili name translates roughly as “chips and eggs,” and the dish is also known as zege. Vendors prepare it to order by placing cooked chips in a pan, adding beaten eggs, and frying the mixture together. The result is more substantial than a side of fries with a separate egg: the chips are bound into an omelette as the eggs set.

Chipsi mayai is associated especially with Tanzania and is sold in street stalls, indoor food stands, villages, and towns. The dish is commonly linked to Dar es Salaam and is often described as an unofficial national dish. Variations may include onion or bell pepper. It is frequently served with kachumbari, a fresh tomato-and-onion salad, or pili-pili and another hot sauce. A common mix-up is confusing it with ordinary chips and eggs served separately; in chipsi mayai, the fries and eggs are cooked together in one omelette.