Togo

🇹🇬Togo

Djenkoumè

A savoury Togolese cornmeal porridge coloured deep red with palm oil and tomato paste and stirred until thick and smooth; a comforting staple, often eaten with fried fish or pepper sauce.

🇹🇬Togo

Dzowé

A Togolese peanut sauce cooked with aromatics and served with a staple dough or rice.

🇹🇬Togo

Eau de Maïs

A mildly fermented maize-water drink popular in Togo, slightly sour and refreshing; often consumed in the morning as a light, thirst-quenching beverage.

🇳🇬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.

🇬🇭Ghana

Fetri Detsi

Ewe okra soup cooked slippery with palm oil, smoked fish and crab, eaten with akple.

🇱🇷Liberia

Fufu

Akpu

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

🇹🇬Togo

Galifoto

A savoury Togolese street snack of gari (roasted cassava granules) mixed with pepper, tomato, and fried or grilled giant land snails; chewy, spicy, and filling.

🇬🇭Ghana

Gari Foto

Cassava granules soaked and stir-fried with egg, onion, tomato and pepper into a moist, savoury dish.

🇬🇭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.

🇨🇮Côte d'Ivoire

Ginger Juice

Gnamakoudji

Pounded ginger squeezed through cloth and sweetened, sometimes with pineapple and vanilla, sold frozen in plastic sachets.

🇬🇭Ghana

Grilled Tilapia

Tilapia

Whole tilapia scored, rubbed with ginger, garlic and pepper and grilled over charcoal, served with banku and hot pepper sauce.

🇬🇭Ghana

Groundnut Soup

Nkatenkwan

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

🇬🇳Guinea

Guinean Banana Fritters

Beignets de banane

Ripe banana fritters with flour, sugar, vanilla, and nutmeg; crispy outside, pillowy soft within; a popular Conakry street snack and breakfast item.

🇬🇳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

Guinean Peanut Paste

Pâte d'arachide

Pure ground peanut paste simmered until the oil rises; the base of sauce arachide (mafé); the Conakry version is thicker and browner than the Senegalese; the essential sauce base.

🇬🇼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.

🇬🇳Guinea

Guinean Sauce Feuilles

Sauce feuilles

Finely crushed cassava leaves simmered with meat (beef or smoked fish), palm oil, onions, and pepper; also called saka-saka or hakô bantara; a staple sauce across Guinea, especially in the Forest Region.

🇬🇭Ghana

Hausa Koko

Fermented millet porridge spiced with ginger, chilli, cloves and pepper, drunk hot from a bowl at breakfast.

🇬🇲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.

🇨🇮Côte d'Ivoire

Ivorian Snails

Escargots

Giant African land snails cleaned with lime, then grilled on skewers or stewed in a peppery sauce with onion.

🇬🇭Ghana

Kaklo

Ripe plantain mashed with flour and pepper and fried into small balls, crisper and rounder than tatale.

🇨🇮Côte d'Ivoire

Kedjenou

Kédjénou

Guinea fowl or chicken sealed into a clay canari with onion, tomato, aubergine and ginger and cooked over low heat with no added liquid, the pot shaken rather than stirred.

🇬🇭Ghana

Kenkey

Kom

Fermented corn dough part-cooked, wrapped in corn husks or plantain leaves and steamed into dense, sour balls.

🇹🇬Togo

Koklo Mémé

Togo's signature charcoal-grilled chicken, marinated all day with ginger, garlic, lime, chilli, oil, salt, and black pepper, then slow-grilled over smoky coals until the skin is crisp and deeply seasoned; served with alloco or bread.

🇹🇬Togo

Kokonte

Dried cassava milled into flour and cooked into a stiff, dark grey-brown staple, nicknamed face-the-wall.

🇹🇬Togo

Kokonte

A Togolese brown cassava-flour swallow cooked into a firm dough and served with soup.

🇬🇭Ghana

Kontomire Stew

Kontomire

Cocoyam leaves boiled down and cooked with palm oil, egusi, onion, smoked fish and boiled egg.

🇹🇬Togo

Kosua ne Meko

A popular Togolese street snack of hard-boiled eggs cut open and filled with a spicy relish of fresh tomato, onion, green chilli, and salt; quick, cheap, and fiery.

🇨🇮Côte d'Ivoire

Koutoukou

Sodabi

Palm wine distilled in village stills into a raw, high-strength clear spirit, sold by the glass from jerrycans.

🇲🇱Mali

Malian Couscous

Couscous

Malian couscous made from millet or sorghum; steamed and served with meat, vegetable, or peanut sauces; the Mali tourism document notes that millet couscous has an exquisite flavor; different from North African couscous which uses wheat; a staple dish across Mali; served at celebrations and family meals; the couscous of the Sahel.

🇲🇱Mali

Malian Puff Puff

Mikate

A popular Malian street food of deep-fried dough balls; flour, sugar, and yeast dough fried until golden brown; dusted with powdered sugar and served hot; widely available across Mali; an inexpensive snack; similar to puff-puff across West Africa; the Malian version of this beloved fried treat.

🇲🇱Mali

Malian Tea

Ataya

Sweet green tea prepared in three rounds across Mali and the Sahel; brewed in a small teapot with sugar and mint; poured back and forth to create foam; the three rounds have names and meanings — the first is bitter like death, the second mild like life, the third sweet like love; a social ritual central to Malian hospitality.

🇹🇬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.

🇹🇬Togo

N'gbagba

A savoury fried tomato and onion sauce in Togo, often spooned over rice-and-beans dishes; salty, sweet, and slightly smoky from the fry.

🇨🇲Cameroon

Nigerian Jollof Rice

Jollof rice

Long-grain rice cooked down in a blended base of red pepper, tomato, onion and scotch bonnet until the grain absorbs it all and the bottom of the pot catches.