The main staple foods in Dawuro include‘ukitsa’, bread made of enset, and ‘Silisuwa’, which made of cheese mixed with butter and other spices.  This is one of an icon food of Dawuro people among others. Bread with uta, buratuwa, silisuwa, k’ochik’ochuwa  and tanchuwa etc. are also traditional  foods of Dawuro.

Uttaa is a dish prepared from sorghum or teff breads; this bread is broken into pieces and it mixed with cheese, butter and different spices and consumed with bread made of enset. Buratuwa made of minced meat and roasted k’ocho mixed with butter and spices.
Sulisuwa’ is a type of dish prepared from minced meat mixed with butter and other spices.
K’ochik ochuwa is a type of dish made of well-cooked mutton mixed with butter and spices while tanchuwa is a type of dish prepared by mixing cooked and chopped cabbage, cheese, butter and spices. Eating raw meat and drinking milk with bread is also common food in Dawuro.

The above traditional dishes are served during wedding, ‘toki-be’a’, construction works (like Halala Walls construction) and other important cultural ceremonies. There are also common foods that are consumed by women feed during delivery and by children during circumcision. Porridge, which is made of well-chopped k’ocho (Ensete musa), teff (Erogratis tef), and other cereals, is one of traditional foods eaten with a curry made of chilli, butter, and spices. Moreover, milk and its products as well as meat/flesh/ of ox/ cow, mutton, goat, chicken etc are often eaten by the Dawuro.
Wives usually prepare foods and drinks whereas a husband administers a household. Husbands eat alone in the living room; all children also eat in the living room. Wives eat in alcove/ k’ol’uwa/.

The most popular traditional drinks of Dawuro include ‘bordiya’, ‘sid’id’uwa’ ‘shameta’, ‘k’arebuwa’,‘geshuwa parsuwa’,and ‘harak’iya’. ‘Bordiya’ is made of sorghum, maize, barley and fermented barley grains. ‘Sid’id’uwa’ is made of teff and barley grains, whereas ‘shameta’ and k’arebuwa’ are made of barley without grains. ‘Geshuwaparsuwa’ and ‘harak’iya’are made of barley, maize, sorghum, runner/ geeshoo/ (woody plant either domesticated or wild shrub that used to make alcoholic drinks) and germinated barley grains. Bordiya was also main traditional drinks during the time of Halala walls construction.

To prepare this food, barley is soaked in water and crushed slightly to remove its husks. Then, it is roasted on a griddle, crushed in to powder and baked on a disc. The bread is tied with rope and hung on the ceiling on the hut and kept there until it become dry. Then, the dried bread is broken in to pieces and butter is rubbed on it. Finally, it is placed in a traditional dish is called choochoo to be served in special occasion.
 Buu’eraatuta is served when one’s son-in-law visits or during a wedding ceremony, at elders’ meetings (oogatee) and also the fasting season of Ramadan.

When this meal is prepared, first the meat is finely minced and put in a clay dish called seeraa. Before the minced meat is placed in on the seeraa, the pot has to be filled with water and placed over fire. This is to treat the cooking pot and also to protect the meat from changing its smell when cooked. When the meat is well cooked, butter mixed in. The fact that the meat is finely minced; the treatment of the dish with water, and the careful refining process of the butter make the Gurage ketfoo delicious and distinct. It is eaten with injera (Ethiopian bread like). Though ketfoo is prepared mainly for annual Meskel celebrations, or when respected guests visit one’s home.