Benin

Ablo are small, individually steamed cakes made from naturally fermented corn (maize) flour, defined by a spongy, porous crumb and a mild sourdough-like tang.

A Beninese everyday staple of yam mashed with red palm oil and hot pepper into a savory porridge.

Akassa is a fermented maize porridge from Benin, cooked by continuous stirring into a smooth, gelatinous mass, molded into leaf-wrapped individual portions, and served with palm nut sauce or spiced smoked-fish stew.

A dense, tomato-red maize flour porridge cooked with red palm oil, ground dried crayfish, and smoked fish into a cohesive, sliceable mass that is both the starch and the flavored dish in one.

A chilled dessert of fermented milk poured over sweet, cooked millet couscous and sweetened with sugar.

A stiff, smooth dough made from fermented cassava flour (gari) hydrated with boiling water, traditionally eaten by hand as a starch base for soups and sauces.

A thick Beninese everyday stew built on gboma (jute mallow) leaves cooked down in red palm oil with smoked fish and dried ground crayfish as its structural flavor backbone.

Deep-fried fritters of ground, peeled black-eyed peas whipped with onion and hot pepper, a West African street and breakfast staple.

A Beninese stiff starch porridge made from yam or maize flour darkened with palm-nut liquid, eaten with a leaf or vegetable stew.

A fiery Beninese condiment of roasted or ground hot peppers blended with fermented locust beans (afitin) and aromatics, eaten with starchy staples.

A West African festive dish of whole guinea fowl roasted with soumbala — fermented African locust-bean condiment — and a garlic-and-chili paste that gives the bird a deep, funky, umami-rich crust.

Whole or jointed chicken marinated in a spicy pepper-and-aromatic paste then charcoal-grilled until charred and juicy, served with a fresh onion relish.

A West African stew built on ground peanuts and tomato slow-cooked with chicken (or other meat), onion, palm or peanut oil and spices into a rich, thick sauce eaten over rice or a starch.

A dense, rich stew built on cooked palm nut pulp (called graines) seasoned with fermented locust beans and chili, traditionally featuring chicken or crab as protein, emblematic of festive and Sunday cooking across coastal West Africa.

A home-distilled spirit made by distilling fermented palm wine, frequently infused with roots, bark, or medicinal plants.

An opaque, mildly sour traditional beer brewed from fermented sorghum (or millet), drunk communally from a calabash.

Sweet, fluffy balls of deep-fried wheat-flour dough flavoured with sugar and vanilla, sold hot as a ubiquitous Beninese street sweet.