Gabon

🇬🇦Gabon

Baked Bananas Gabon

Bananes au four

Bananas coated with bread crumbs and served with sour cream and brown sugar; a sweet dessert preparation found in Gabonese homes.

🇬🇭Ghana

Beninese Gari

Gari

Roasted fermented cassava granules; consumed dry, with water, or as paste (piron); a versatile cassava product; the instant food of Benin; eaten with sauce or as a snack.

🇬🇦Ngounié-Nyanga (Southern Forest), Gabon

Boulette

A large ball of pounded plantains, cut into pieces and served with sauce; a specialty of the Bapunu and Nzebi peoples of southern Gabon.

🇨🇲Cameroon

Bush Mango

Ndo'o

The dried and ground kernel of the wild mango, used as a thickener that turns sauces glossy and slightly stretchy.

🇬🇦Gabon

Cassava Porridge

Puree de manioc

Cassava tubers soaked, pounded into a white paste, and cooked into a porridge; served for breakfast or dessert with peanuts, sugar, or salt; a drinkable meal for adults and children.

🇨🇩DR Congo

Chikwangue

Kwanga

A fermented cassava bread wrapped in marantaceae leaves and steamed; the cassava is soaked in water for up to fourteen days, then pounded into a paste and wrapped in leaves for steaming; dense, slightly sour, and incredibly filling; commercially produced throughout the country; a staple across Central Africa; darker in some parts, nearly white in others; eaten with all kinds of sauces and fish.

🇨🇩DR Congo

Congolese Fufu

Fufu

The staple food of the Congo — a smooth, dense, slightly elastic dough made from cassava flour, corn flour, or sometimes plantains; rolled into golf-ball-sized balls and dipped into stews; the proper way to eat it is to pinch off a piece with the right hand, indent with the thumb, and scoop up sauce; present on all Congolese tables from north to south; the universal accompaniment.

🇨🇩DR Congo

Congolese Hot Sauce

Pili pili

A very hot chili pepper sauce served with nearly everything in the Congo; made from pili-pili peppers, onions, garlic, and oil; occasionally dried and sprinkled on fruit; the Congolese condiment that adds fire to any dish; listed in Wikipedia's Congolese cuisine; the heat of Central African cuisine; found at every table and street stall.

🇨🇩DR Congo

Congolese Palm Wine

Malafu

Palm wine made from the sap of a wild palm tree, fermented by natural yeasts; has an alcohol content of between five and seven percent; listed in Wikipedia's Congolese cuisine; a traditional beverage across Central Africa; the sap is collected from cut palm flower stems and ferments naturally; a refreshing, slightly sweet drink; the traditional alcohol of the Congo.

🇨🇫Central African Republic

Dongo-dongo

A thick okra soup or sauce simmered with dried or smoked fish, onions, garlic and hot peppers; often thickened with tomato paste or a pinch of baking soda and served with fufu or rice.

🇨🇩DR Congo

Fried Plantains

Makemba

Fried plantains, a popular street food and side dish across the Congo; ripe plantains sliced and fried golden; eaten as a side or a snack; turn up alongside just about everything; in Congo's largest cities, fried plantains have become a popular fast food item, even overshadowing French fries; a simple, beloved staple.

🇨🇩DR Congo

Fumbwa

A vegetable dish made from the leaves of Gnetum africanum (African spinach); the leaves are rolled into a bundle and cut into thin strips, giving them a filament appearance; usually prepared with spices and peanuts; a specialty of the western provinces of DRC; also known as okok in Cameroon; a nutritious, earthy vegetable dish; served with fufu or chikwangue.

🇬🇦Gabon

Gabonese Beignets

Beignets

Deep-fried dough balls, both sweet and savoury; banana beignets made with overripe bananas, flour, and sugar; savoury beignets salés studded with onions; sold by street vendors in markets.

🇬🇦Libreville, Gabon

Gabonese Brochettes

Brochettes

Meat skewers (chicken, beef, fish) grilled over charcoal; chicken feet and wings are particularly popular in Libreville; served with bread, chikwangue, or spaghetti with mayonnaise.

🇬🇦Haut-Ogooué (Southeastern / Franceville), Gabon

Gabonese Caterpillars

Chenilles

Edible caterpillars (Parotis baldersalis) collected from Tabernaemontana crassa trees on the Plateaux Bateke; an important source of protein; pan-fried or stewed with vegetables.

🇬🇦Gabon

Gabonese Mustard Chicken

Poulet a la moutarde

Chicken marinated with lemon, garlic, onions, and Dijon mustard, then roasted or simmered; a French-influenced Gabonese dish that bridges local ingredients with French technique.

🇬🇦Gabon

Gabonese Salted Fish Stew

Poisson sale

A weekend stew of salted cod with cabbage, carrots, onions, tomatoes, and peppers; a Gabonese family dish served with manioc or pounded plantains.

🇬🇦Gabon

Gabonese Sugarcane Wine

Vin de canne a sucre

A traditional fermented beverage made from sugarcane juice; sold alongside palm wine at depots like PK6 in Libreville; sweet, tangy, and mildly alcoholic.

🇨🇲Cameroon

Ginger Juice

Jus de gingembre

Raw ginger blitzed with water, lemon and sugar and strained into a fierce, throat-burning cold drink.

🇨🇲Cameroon

Grilled Fish

Poisson braisé

Whole fish scored, packed with a garlic, ginger and pepper paste and grilled over coals, served with fried plantain and a raw onion-and-pepper salsa.

🇬🇲The Gambia

Hibiscus Juice

Bissap

Dried hibiscus calyces steeped with sugar, mint and sometimes orange-blossom water into a deep red drink served ice-cold.

🇨🇩DR Congo

Liboke

Liboké

An emblematic Congolese cooking method — fish, chicken, or meat marinated with spices and vegetables, then wrapped in banana leaves and steamed or grilled; the word means 'package' in Lingala; the parcel keeps everything moist and lets seasonings sink in; the most popular version is fish liboke with catfish, tomatoes, onions, garlic, and chili; a defining technique of Congolese cuisine.

🇬🇲The Gambia

Maafe

Sauce d'arachide

Beef, lamb or chicken stewed in a groundnut paste and tomato sauce with cassava, carrot and sweet potato, served over rice.

🇨🇲Cameroon

Ndolé

Ndole

Bitterleaf boiled and washed repeatedly to draw out the bitterness, then cooked with ground peanuts, crayfish, beef, smoked fish and pork rind into a thick green stew.

🇬🇦Ngounié-Nyanga (Southern Forest), Gabon

Odika

A thick brown paste made from roasted and ground wild mango seeds (Irvingia gabonensis); looks like chocolate and has a slightly bitter, nutty flavour; used as a sauce base for meat and fish.

🇨🇩DR Congo

Pondu

Saka saka

The beloved national staple of the Congo — cassava leaves pounded into a fine paste and slow-cooked for hours with palm oil, onions, garlic, and often smoked fish or beef; rich in protein, vitamins, and minerals; the palm oil gives a characteristic reddish-brown color and nutty flavor; served with fufu, chikwangue, or plantains; the backbone of daily Congolese dining.

🇬🇦Gabon

Poulet Nyembwe

Chicken braised in a thick, deep-orange sauce of palm nut pulp, peanut butter, tomatoes and aromatics; the Central African take on the palm-nut chicken stew found across the Congo basin.

🇨🇩DR Congo

Poulet à la Moambe

Poulet moambe

The national dish of the Democratic Republic of the Congo — chicken braised low and slow in a glossy, deep-orange sauce built from palm nut pulp, peanut butter, tomatoes, and warm aromatics; the name 'moambe' refers to the palm butter made from the pericarp of palm nuts; served with rice, fufu, or chikwangue; the soul of Congolese culinary tradition.

🇬🇦Gabon

Regab

The national lager of Gabon, brewed by SOBRAGA since 1966; the name is a contraction of Regie gabonaise des boissons; the most consumed alcoholic beverage in the country and a cultural symbol.

🇨🇬Republic of the Congo

Safou

A purple-black oily fruit roasted or dipped in hot water until the flesh softens into something between avocado and olive, eaten with maize.