Dining in Bénin

Food is always a bit confusing to me when I travel in West Africa. Although there is quite a bit of similarity across the region in culinary terms, the terminology differs from place to place. The base is some kind of starch -- rice, various forms of cassava, corn meal, various forms of yams, potatoes, bananas, etc. -- served with some sort of stew (often made of a wide variety of greens), perhaps grilled or fried chicken or fish, and hot pepper sauce (piment) as a condiment. 

Benin is no exception. I've experienced several variations on the West African theme, including a very tasty stew made from friend cheese (not unlike Indian paneer) stewed together with a very bitey green leaf, tomatoes, and onions. Fried and stewed fish are common, given the oceanfront nature of Cotonou. Yet I'm told that the quintessential Cotonou meal is based on a cornmeal cooked until thick with tomatoes, peppers, and other seasonings (amiwo) , served with a savory stew of onions and tomatoes, and fish or chicken, with a bit of piment on the side. A variety of western soft drinks are available, yet something called "youki" which involves fresh grapefruit juice and carbonation, seems a common choice. 

Pounded yams with fish stew

At another meal, I chose a fish stew in a red sauce served with pounded yam, what is called fufu in Ghana. This dish is eaten by taking bits of the starch in your fingers and using it to scoop up the fish and sauce. It's one of my favorites, and is quite difficult to find in the US. 

Chicken with amiwo and stew

Dessert is fruit -- the bounties of a tropical land -- mangoes, pineapple, oranges, grapefruit, bananas of all shapes and sizes, watermelon. This is the height of mango season, and you see people selling mangoes all over the city. At one point, I saw them being sold from the back of a dump truck. While some resemble the kinds of mangos we find in a US supermarket (small and light yellow or variegated green, orange, and red), others are like nothing I've seen elsewhere. Some of them are nearly the size of a football and must way 5 pounds. For a mango lover, this is like a window into heaven…

Timmy Tiger with a Bénin mango