Wonna Bay Vila – Savouring all of Mozambique, looking at the bay

The Wonna Bay Vila was born from a dream. A dream that has followed Rachida Melo’s life since she was a child, in the village of Luabo, in Zambézia. She says that the first years of her life were spent by the kitchen stove where her mother prepared food, nourishing the soul and spirit of her children, giving them an identity.

Later, she walked away from the kitchen and Luabo. She went to Maputo where she studied and worked until, finally in her retirement, she gave life to her childhood dream and around pots and spices, she recovered the time that had went by. She did it with her husband, in Catembe. She did so at Wonna Bay Vila, where Rachida seeks to bring the various flavours of Mozambique to the table.

It is a restaurant, a hotel, a conference room and a fabulous view over the bay of Maputo. Wonna comes from this view, because wonna is seeing in Changana. And from playing with words came the name of Wonna Bay Vila, where you can eat the best grilled crab with coconut milk in southern Mozambique, the creamiest mucapata, with mung beans, coconut milk and rice; a Zambezian chicken to die for, a tasty mucuane, a shrimp curry with okra that even invites you to lick your fingers… And how can we not mention the delicious baobab fruit mousse? Or the cassava pastries with shrimp and cheese filling (also in a vegetarian version), the cassava cakes, the matoritori and the sura bread made in the Zambezian tradition and the mabûratcha, the bread with coconut milk typical of the province of Sofala, the muri-muri, Indian-style mung beans that have had such an influence on Mozambique’s coastal cuisine.

It is a restaurant, a hotel, a conference room and has a fabulous view over the bay of Maputo.

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Well-dosed spices that come directly from the vegetable garden – ginger, turmeric, cardamom, basil, mint, coriander, garlic, chives… – fragrant lime juice, piri-piri hot in its freshness… a concentrate of flavours. It is worth saying that the mung beans and rice are not made up to pretend they are real: they come directly from Zambézia!  Be honest, before such a culinary art show, isn’t your mouth watering already?

Very fresh ingredients, prepared in a simple way, with all the necessary time, in full respect of tradition, to maintain the flavour. Because in the kitchen there is no wasted time, in the kitchen you make up for lost time… Rachida insists on that and, with a smile, tells us that only with the necessary time, and with great affection, one should cook. As Mia Couto says “cooking is not a service… cooking is a way of loving others.”

At Wonna Bay, you can have lunch or dinner in the dining room or under the porch, but the green of the trees invites you to taste the food in the garden, in the shade of the casuarina trees, with the birds chirping, enjoying the wonderful light show of the Maputo Bay.  A small space with swings and other toys for children to play and lots of flowers around.

Now, it’s just a matter of tasting and looking at the bay. Do you want to be served?

Issue 75 Sept/Oct | Download.