Togo

🇹🇬Togo

Ablo

Rice or corn flour beignets; steamed then sometimes fried; small, round, slightly sweet; a popular street food; served with sauce or as a snack.

🇹🇬Togo

Abobo

Giant land snails from Togo, simmered or grilled in a spicy tomato and onion sauce; a beloved local delicacy called abobo, often sold as a street snack with gari or cassava.

🇬🇭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.

🇧🇯South (Cotonou / Porto-Novo / Fon-Yoruba), Benin

Akassa

Fermented corn starch dough shaped into dumplings or porridge; a southern Benin specialty from Ouidah and Porto-Novo; slightly sour; served with sauce goussi or sauce graine.

🇧🇯Cotonou, Benin

Aklui

A traditional porridge from fermented corn starch (mawê) with granules; served with milk, sugar, and sometimes coconut; a Cotonou breakfast specialty; sweet and comforting.

🇹🇬Togo

Akoumé

The most revered Togolese staple: a smooth, thick corn porridge made from ground maize and fermented cassava, stirred over heat until it sets into a firm, elastic mass; eaten with the fingers and used to scoop rich sauces.

🇧🇯Benin

Akpan

A fermented maize drink with a yogurt-like consistency; white and slightly acidic; a ceremonial drink; sometimes called 'Beninese yogurt'; sold in bags at markets.

🇹🇬Togo

Akpan

A sweet, fermented maize pudding from Togo with a slightly sour, creamy flavour and a pale yellow colour; served as a dessert or snack, sometimes with sugar and evaporated milk.

🇬🇭Ghana

Akpeteshie

Sodabi

Palm wine or sugarcane juice distilled locally into a rough, strong clear spirit.

🇹🇬Togo

Akpladjo

Togolese fermented corn dough shaped into soft balls and served swimming in a hot, spicy sauce made with palm oil, tomato, and smoked fish; a comforting everyday dish in the south.

🇬🇭Ghana

Akple

Ewe staple of corn dough and cassava dough cooked together, softer and lighter than banku.

🇹🇬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

Alloco Poulet

A plate of fried plantain with grilled or fried chicken and raw onion in chilli, the standard maquis order after dark.

🇧🇯South (Cotonou / Porto-Novo / Fon-Yoruba), Benin

Amiwo

Amiwô

Red corn dough cooked with tomato paste, palm oil, onions, and spices; a 'fat pudding' from southern Benin; the festive version of wô; served with grilled chicken or turkey.

🇧🇯North (Parakou / Borgou / Bariba), Benin

Atassi

A rice and beans dish; originally from northern Benin; now popular nationwide; served with sauce goussi or sauce tomate; a hearty, protein-rich meal.

🇨🇮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.

🇹🇬Togo

Ayimolou

Togo's beloved rice-and-beans breakfast: long-grain rice and black-eyed peas cooked together and tinted red with a light tomato sauce; often sold wrapped in banana leaves by street vendors in the morning.

🇹🇬Togo

Azi Kokui

A traditional Togolese dish of boiled yam or cassava dressed with a richly spiced palm-oil sauce; starchy, filling, and deeply flavoured with smoked fish or meat.

🇨🇲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.

🇹🇬Togo

Banku

Fermented corn and cassava dough cooked and beaten over heat into a smooth, stretchy, sour ball.

🇹🇬Togo

Baobab Juice

Alangban

A creamy, tangy Togolese drink made by blending baobab fruit pulp with water and sugar; thick, pale, and very high in vitamin C, sold fresh on streets and in markets.

🇧🇫Burkina Faso

Baobab Leaf Sauce

Sauce feuilles de baobab

A thick sauce from fresh or dried baobab leaves with potash, soumbala, and meat or fish; the leaves are mucilaginous and thicken the sauce; used in 64% of tô sauces in Burkina Faso.

🇲🇱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.

🇧🇯Benin

Beninese Wô

Wô

White corn dough, the most consumed dish in Benin; a plain corn flour porridge served with various sauces; the staple paste of southern Benin; eaten by hand.

🇬🇭Ghana

Bofrot

Botokoin

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

🇹🇬Togo

Brochettes

Tsire

Togolese grilled meat skewers, usually beef, goat, chicken liver, or mutton, marinated in ginger, garlic, chilli, and peanut-spice seasoning, then grilled over charcoal; sold on the street with sliced onion, tomato, and bread.

🇧🇫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.

🇹🇩Chad

Chadian Grilled Fish

Poisson Braisé

Fresh fish from Lake Chad and the Chari River, grilled whole over charcoal; capitaine (Nile perch) is the most prized; skin blistered and golden; served with lime wedges and chili; a popular street food and restaurant dish; fish is consumed everywhere in Chad.

🇨🇲Cameroon

Chichinga

Brochettes

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

🇲🇱Mali

Chicken Yassa

Poulet yassa

A Senegalese dish widely eaten in Mali; chicken marinated in lemon, onions, and mustard, then grilled and simmered in the marinade; listed in Wikipedia's Malian cuisine as a popular dish; the Malian version may differ slightly in seasoning; served with rice

🇹🇬Togo

Concacada

A traditional Togolese sweet made from coconut, sugar, and sometimes condensed milk, cooked until sticky and sweet; coconut-forward and enjoyed as a small dessert or teatime treat.

🇨🇩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 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.

🇹🇬Togo

Cow Skin

Akpanman

Softened cow skin, called akpanman in Togo, used as a chewy, collagen-rich ingredient in egoussi déssi and other stews; valued for its texture and ability to thicken sauces.