Sierra Leone

🇳🇬Nigeria

Agidi

A Nigerian soft cornmeal pudding, wrapped in leaves and set into a firm jelly-like block, served with soups, stews or akara.

🇸🇱Sierra Leone

Agidi

A Sierra Leonean cornmeal pudding set into a soft, sliceable sour starch.

🇬🇭Ghana

Akara

Àkàrà

Peeled black-eyed beans ground with onion and pepper, whipped until airy and deep-fried in balls, eaten hot for breakfast with pap or bread.

🇹🇬Togo

Alloco

Ripe plantain cut into thick slices and fried in red palm oil until the sugars catch, served with raw onion and a chilli sauce.

🇨🇮Côte d'Ivoire

Attiéké

Cassava peeled, grated, fermented for a day with a starter of older mash, pressed dry, sieved into granules and steamed into a light couscous.

🇨🇲Cameroon

Banga Soup

Banga

Palm fruit pulp boiled and sieved into a red, oily broth spiced with beletientien and other Delta herbs, cooked with catfish or beef.

🇲🇱Mali

Bean Fritters

Beignet de haricots

Bean fritters sold as street food in Mali; listed in the Mali tourism document alongside brochettes and froufrou; black-eyed peas are soaked, ground, seasoned, and deep-fried; a popular, inexpensive snack; similar to akara across West Africa; found at street stalls in Bamako and other cities; the breakfast of urban Mali.

🇹🇬Togo

Bean Fritters

Gawou

Crispy Togolese bean fritters made from skinned black-eyed peas blended with onion, chilli, and salt, then deep-fried into golden balls; a popular morning or afternoon market snack.

🇬🇭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.

🇸🇱Sierra Leone

Benne Cake

A crisp, sweet Sierra Leonean sesame wafer made by cooking sesame seeds in a sugar base, rolling it thin, and cutting it into diamond shapes; a traditional crunchy sweet snack.

🇸🇱Sierra Leone

Benni Cake

A Sierra Leonean sesame confection cooked with sugar into a crisp, nutty cake.

🇸🇱Sierra Leone

Bitter Leaf Stew

Bittas

A Sierra Leonean leaf stew made from bitter leaves (Vernonia amygdalina) that are repeatedly washed and pounded to remove bitterness, then simmered in palm oil with ogiri, meat or fish, and pepper; a special-occasion dish on Saturdays and holidays.

🇳🇬Nigeria

Bitterleaf Soup

Ofe onugbu

Washed bitter leaf cooked with cocoyam paste, palm oil, stockfish and meat into a thick soup that keeps a deliberate bitter edge.

🇸🇱Sierra Leone

Black-eyed Peas and Rice

Binch

A Sierra Leonean Friday breakfast of black-eyed peas cooked with onion, tomato, palm oil, chilli, and flakes of fish, served over white rice; a beloved morning street meal in Freetown.

🇬🇭Ghana

Bofrot

Botokoin

Sweetened yeast dough dropped by the spoonful into hot oil and fried into round, chewy balls.

🇧🇫Burkina Faso

Burkinabè Cowpea

Niébé

Cowpea (Vigna unguiculata), the major legume of Burkina Faso; drought-resistant and protein-rich; used in benga, gonré, and beignets; called benga in Mooré and sôsô in Dioula.

🇸🇱Sierra Leone

Cassava Bread

A flat, dense Sierra Leonean bread made from grated cassava that is squeezed dry, pressed into rounds, and baked; slightly chewy and mildly sour, it is both a street snack and a gluten-free staple.

🇱🇷Liberia

Cassava Leaf Plassas

Cassava Leaf Soup

Sierra Leone's beloved cassava leaf stew: finely chopped cassava leaves slowly simmered with red palm oil, groundnuts, ogiri, smoked fish or meat, and scotch bonnet pepper until thick and dark green; a weekly staple eaten over rice.

🇨🇲Cameroon

Chichinga

Brochettes

Beef or chicken threaded on skewers, rubbed in a spiced groundnut and chilli powder and grilled over coals.

🇨🇩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.

🇸🇱Sierra Leone

Coconut Bread

Bolo

A soft, sweet Sierra Leonean bread or cake rich with grated coconut, sugar, flour, and oil; a popular snack, breakfast, or celebration treat, sometimes baked as loaves, squares, or biscuits.

🇼🇸Samoa

Coconut Bread

Fa'apapa

Thick slab of sweet, fluffy coconut bread; flour, sugar, coconut flakes, and coconut milk mixed into a dough and baked until golden; found in most Samoan households and on breakfast tables; also used to make fa'ausi; simple, sweet, and coconut-rich; a Samoan staple bread.

🇳🇬Nigeria

Coconut Candy

Grated coconut cooked with sugar and a little milk until it caramelises, then dried into hard chewy pieces.

🇸🇱Sierra Leone

Country Rice

Sierra Leonean country rice, often mangrove rice grown in coastal diked fields and parboiled by briefly boiling and sun-drying; the foundation of almost every Sierra Leonean meal.

🇳🇬Nigeria

Egusi Soup

Egusi

Ground melon seeds cooked in palm oil with pepper, leafy greens and assorted meat or fish until the seed sets into soft lumps in the oil.

🇸🇱Sierra Leone

Footi

A thick vegetable sauce with eggplant, okra, kidney beans, tomatoes, and bouillon cube; served over rice; a hearty Guinean everyday dish.

🇸🇱Sierra Leone

Fry Fry

A mixed Sierra Leonean street-food platter of assorted deep-fried bites: plantain chips, bean fritters, fried potatoes, fish balls, and chicken; customers pick their favourites and dip them in spicy onion gravy.

🇱🇷Liberia

Fufu

Akpu

Cassava soaked for days until it ferments, then pounded or wrapped and steamed into a soft, sour white swallow.

🇳🇬Ibadan, Nigeria

Gbegiri

Brown beans cooked to collapse and sieved into a smooth, pale yellow soup finished with palm oil.

🇬🇭Ghana

Ghanaian Jollof

Jollof

Long-grain aromatic rice cooked in a reduced tomato, onion, ginger and scotch bonnet stock until the grains take the colour of the sauce.

🇸🇱Sierra Leone

Ginger Beer

Ginga Bia

A fierce, homemade Sierra Leonean ginger drink made by boiling large amounts of fresh ginger root with water, sugar, and cloves, then chilling it; intensely spicy and sweet, it is the classic street refreshment.

🇬🇭Ghana

Groundnut Soup

Nkatenkwan

Peanut paste cooked out with tomato, onion, ginger and chilli into a thick soup with chicken, goat or dried fish.

🇸🇱Sierra Leone

Groundnut Stew

A creamy, nutty Sierra Leonean stew built from ground peanut paste, tomato, onion, leafy greens, and chicken, fish, or beef; mildly sweet, deeply savoury, and served over rice or with fufu.

🇬🇳Moyenne-Guinée (Fouta Djallon / Labé), Guinea

Guinean Lait Caillé

Lait caillé

Fermented cow's milk (24-48 hours), creamy with a slightly sour taste; served with couscous as dessert or with rice as a snack; a Fula specialty of the Fouta Djallon.

🇬🇼Guinea-Bissau

Guinean Pili-Pili

Pili-pili

African bird's eye chili pepper (50,000-175,000 SHU); used in sauces, as a condiment, and as pili-pili oil; the heat source of Guinean cuisine; called piri-piri in Portuguese.

🇬🇳Guinea

Guinean Puff Puffs

Gato

Fried dough balls with yeast, sugar, salt, and sometimes onion; crispy outside, soft inside; a popular Guinean snack and breakfast item; called gato locally.