Porridge

🇲🇰North Macedonia

Lapa

Лапа

Cornmeal or flour cooked to a loose porridge with cheese and butter stirred through, eaten in the mountains for breakfast.

🇬🇳Guinea

Latchiri Kossan

Millet or fonio served with tangy sour milk in a traditional Guinean breakfast preparation.

🇧🇼Botswana

Lerotse Porridge

Bogobe jwa lerotse

Wedding porridge of sorghum mixed with lerotse melon — the melon is pre-prepared with sour milk and stored, then cooked into the sorghum; a celebratory dish unique to Botswana, served at weddings.

🇱🇾Libya

Libyan Asida

Asida

Plain wheat flour beaten into boiling water into a smooth mound and served with a well of date syrup, honey and melted butter.

🇲🇼Malawi

Likuni Phala

A nutritious Malawian porridge blend of maize and soy or groundnut flour.

🇦🇪United Arab Emirates

Madrooba

مدروبة

Thick porridge-like dish made with salted fish (or chicken) and rice, enriched with flour and aromatic spices like turmeric, cumin, and green chili, smooth creamy consistency, a coastal heritage dish.

🇨🇻Cape Verde

Maize Porridge with Pork

Papa com Frigenote

Maize porridge served with pork and a sauce made from pork offal, a delicacy from Boa Vista and Santo Antão islands.

🇮🇩Manado, Indonesia

Manado Vegetable Porridge

Tinutuan

Manado vegetable rice porridge with corn, pumpkin, and various vegetables, comforting and nutritious.

🇸🇹Sao Tome and Principe

Mashed Breadfruit

Blablá

Mashed or crushed breadfruit; a common side dish in Sao Tome and Principe; breadfruit boiled and pounded until smooth; starchy and filling; served alongside fish stews and grilled fish; a staple carbohydrate of the islands; the breadfruit mash that accompanies every Santomean meal.

🇲🇱Mali

Mashed Plantain

Foutou banane

A Malian dish of mashed plantains; a staple that has spread beyond Mali to other West African countries; believed to have originated from Ivory Coast; plantains are boiled and pounded into a smooth, thick paste; served with sauces; high in vitamins and minerals; a filling and nutritious dish; popular in southern Mali.

🇦🇫Afghanistan

Mastawa

ماستاوه

Rice cooked in a lamb broth and finished with qoroot or yoghurt into a thick, sour porridge.

🇭🇹Haiti

Mayi Moulen

Cornmeal cooked out with beans, coconut milk or just water and salt, served under a bean sauce or with fried fish.

🇹🇼Tainan, Taiwan

Milkfish Congee

虱目魚肚粥

A Tainan breakfast congee of tender milkfish belly served over rice porridge with ginger, scallions and a clear, savoury broth, a southern Taiwanese morning staple.

🇹🇩Chad

Millet Ball

Boule

The most popular staple food of Chad; a thick, stiff porridge of millet or sorghum flour cooked with water until it forms a dense, moldable dough; served as a large communal ball from which diners tear off pieces and dip into sauces; known by many names across ethnic groups: gou (Zaghawa), tii (Daza), biri (Kanembou), mour (Sara), esh (Chadian Arabic).

🇬🇼Guinea-Bissau

Moni

A sweet Guinea-Bissau corn-flour porridge served warm for breakfast or a light meal.

🇱🇸Lesotho

Motoho

A thin, sour fermented sorghum porridge made by soaking sorghum meal overnight with a starter culture (tomoso), then cooking to a smooth consistency. Eaten as a thick porridge or thinned into a drink, it is a daily breakfast and weaning food in Lesotho.

🇹🇬Togo

Moulou Zogbon

A traditional Togolese rice porridge, soft and soupy, often eaten for breakfast or as a light meal; mild, comforting, and sometimes sweetened with a little sugar or milk.

🇸🇮Slovenia

Močnik

A traditional Slovenian cereal porridge made from buckwheat, maize, wheat, millet or oats, cooked in milk, cream or soured cream, a comforting breakfast or dessert.

🇳🇺Niue

Nanē Pia

A translucent Niuean porridge made from arrowroot (pia) and coconut; dumplings of pia mixed with scraped coconut are dropped into boiling coconut water, giving a thick, slightly slimy texture with a bland, nutty flavour.

🇾🇪Yemen

Našūf

Coarsely ground wheat or barley cooked into a porridge and eaten with ghee and honey or sugar.

🇦🇴Angola

Ngonguenha

Toasted cassava flour stirred with sugar and milk or water into a thick, sandy sweet eaten by the spoon.

🇲🇼Malawi

Nsima

Malawi's daily staple: a thick, stiff maize-flour porridge cooked in boiling water until it holds a smooth, firm mound, eaten with the right hand and used to scoop ndiwo relishes. UNESCO-recognised as part of Malawian intangible heritage.

🇰🇷Jeju, South Korea

Okdomjuk

옥돔죽

A Jeju porridge of tilefish (okdom), simmered into a delicate, savoury congee.

🇳🇦Namibia

Oshifima

Oshithima

Namibia's staple porridge — mahangu (pearl millet) flour and cornmeal boiled in water until thick and smooth, served daily as the energy base of the Owambo diet.

🇳🇬Nigeria

Pap

Ògì

Maize soaked, ground and fermented into a smooth starch, then whisked with boiling water into a sour, silky porridge.

🇲🇼Malawi

Pap (Maize Meal Porridge)

Pap

South Africa's staple food: a starchy porridge of maize meal (mielie-meal), served soft or stiff with meat, gravy, or chakalaka

🇿🇦South Africa

Pap en Wors

A South African classic of pap (maize porridge) served with boerewors and tomato-onion sauce. A braai and street staple, hearty and savory

🇱🇸Lesotho

Papa ka Moroho

The defining everyday Basotho meal: stiff maize porridge (papa) served with sautéed leafy greens (moroho), often accompanied by a little meat, eggs, or canned fish when available.

🇮🇩Indonesia

Papua-Maluku Sago Porridge

Papeda

Eastern Indonesia staple made from sago starch, thick and sticky, served with fish in yellow broth.

🇯🇲Jamaica

Peanut Porridge

A hearty Jamaican breakfast porridge of blended raw peanuts simmered with oatmeal, condensed milk, nutmeg and cinnamon, a protein-rich street breakfast.

🇧🇴Bolivia

Pesque de Quinua

A Bolivian dish of quinoa cooked with milk and cheese, a creamy and healthy Altiplano classic.

🇨🇴Colombia

Peto Costeño

A Caribbean-coast dish of beaten white corn cooked with milk, cinnamon, and panela. A sweet, creamy coastal breakfast, served with cheese on top.

🇲🇼Malawi

Phala

A thin Malawian maize or millet porridge eaten at breakfast and during lean seasons.

🇰🇷South Korea

Pine Nut Porridge

잣죽

A smooth, luxurious rice porridge made with ground pine nuts, with a rich, nutty flavor and a silky texture.

🇹🇬Togo

Pinon

A Togolese gari-based dish, a quick-cooking dry-cassava couscous that is moistened and fluffed, often coloured red with palm oil and served with meat or fish sauce; comes in red and white versions.

🇦🇴Angola

Pirão

Maize flour cooked into a stiff yellow porridge, the southern Angolan counterpart to cassava funge.