Piri piri is both a dish and, in common usage, shorthand for the fiery cuisine built around piri piri sauce: chicken, prawns, or fish marinated and grilled with the chilli sauce until charred and succulent. The name comes from the Swahili for the small, hot African bird’s eye chilli at the sauce’s heart, carried to Africa by Portuguese traders and absorbed into Mozambican and Angolan cooking. The global chain Nando’s made piri piri chicken an international phenomenon, but the authentic dish is simpler: butterflied chicken, flame-grilled, basted repeatedly with the oil, lemon, garlic, and chilli sauce. The technique suits the sauce: fierce heat crisps the skin while the marinade penetrates, and the result balances fire with the fruity depth of the chillies. It is street food elevated by flame.