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Hot, hot, hot!
A typical meal in West Africa is heavy on starchy foods, light
on meat, generous on fat and commonly cooked in one pot. Other
than that, the most telling characteristic of an African dish
is heat: chili peppers are used beyond what we would
begin to think of as hot. The most notorious peppers, the
Scotch Bonnets and the pilli pilli, earn respect
from even the most dedicated chili-heads. Equatorial climates
all tend to encourage the use of chilis, as these hot foods
produce the effect of "gustatory sweating" -- distinguished
from other types of bodily perspiration and resulting in an
overall cooling effect.
Fish and meats
West African cuisine bears more seafood than the rest
of the continent, and unlike most other cultures, mixes seafood
and meats together in many dishes. Beignets Crevettes
are a West African creation with a French influence and is
basically fish with a white wine sauce. Most dishes are some
form of stew, allowing for the stringy, poorer quality lamb
and goats to be used, and chickens and eggs are commonly served
throughout Africa.
Staples
Peanuts can be found in just about anything, from soups
and stews to garnishes, snacks and pounded into a paste. West
Africa is blessed with rain, resulting in rice as the predominant
starchy food, while corn, millet and sorghum dishes are featured
on the rest of the continent.
Along with rice, yams, sweet potatoes, cassava and potatoes
and root vegetables fill the bellies of the people, as do
plantains. All can be cooked in multiple ways: roasted, baked,
boiled, mashed, with cinnamon, or sugar or oil or in a range
of both sweet and savoury.
Plantain boiled up with cassava is then pounded
into balls and served with sauce to make fufu, a substantial
local feed. Its very cheap, though consuming is a bit of an
art form: Don't chew, just swallow!
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