Aja

Akassa

also Lio, Koko

Fermented maize dough steamed in leaf parcels into a firm sour cake, eaten with almost every Beninese sauce. The sourness is the point and takes three days to build.

Serves 6 · 1 hour, plus 3 days fermenting

Tchigan

also Yam and bean porridge, Atassi

Yam and beans cooked down together with palm oil into a soft red porridge, the Beninese household dish and the country's most eaten evening meal.

Serves 6 · 1 hour 30 minutes, plus soaking

Amiwo

Maize dough cooked directly in a red tomato and chilli sauce so the polenta takes the colour and the flavour, served with fried chicken or fish. Benin's best-known dish outside its borders.

Serves 6 · 1 hour 15 minutes

Ata

also Akara, Bean cakes

Black-eyed pea fritters, whipped light and deep fried, sold from roadside pans at dawn across Benin and Nigeria alike. Eaten with pepper sauce and a hunk of bread.

Serves Makes 20 · 40 minutes, plus 4 hours soaking

Kuli-Kuli

Groundnut paste pressed of its oil, spiced and fried into crisp rings and sticks. Made in quantity for festivals and journeys, and crushed over salads and porridge.

Serves Makes 30 · 1 hour 30 minutes

Sauce Gombo

Okra cooked to a deliberately drawing sauce with smoked fish and crayfish, eaten by dipping akassa or pounded yam in and swallowing without chewing. The texture is the achievement, not a flaw.

Serves 6 · 45 minutes

Wagasi

also Fulani cheese, Wara

Fresh cheese curdled with the sap of the calotropis plant by Fulani herders in northern Benin, fried until golden and eaten with tomato sauce.

Serves 6 · 40 minutes

Sodabi

Palm wine distilled to a fierce clear spirit, poured on the ground for the ancestors before anyone drinks. Central to Vodun ceremony and to every Beninese celebration.

Serves Serves as a digestif · Distilled traditionally; served in minutes

Pâte

also Akume

Maize dough cooked into a soft mound and served with sauce, the daily starch of southern Togo. Made from fermented dough for the sour version or fresh flour for the plain.

Serves 6 · 40 minutes

Fufu with Groundnut Sauce

Pounded yam or cassava with a groundnut and tomato sauce, the dish Togolese name first when asked about their food. Made with guinea fowl on a good day.

Serves 6 · 1 hour 45 minutes

Koklo Meme

Whole chicken grilled over charcoal with a chilli and ginger baste, sold from roadside grills in Lomé and eaten with the fingers and a cold drink.

Serves 4 · 1 hour 15 minutes, plus 3 hours marinating

Ayimolou

also Rice and beans, Watche

Rice and beans cooked together and sold from great pots at Lomé's roadsides from dawn, with fried plantain, spaghetti and a fierce tomato sauce heaped on top.

Serves 6 · 1 hour 15 minutes, plus soaking

Abobo

also Snails in sauce, Escargots grillés

Giant land snails grilled on skewers or stewed in a tomato and chilli sauce, sold along the Togolese coast road and eaten with a beer.

Serves 4 · 1 hour

Djenkoumé

Maize flour cooked into a red tomato sauce and baked or set into a firm cake, served with chicken. Made for Christmas, weddings and any occasion worth the effort.

Serves 8 · 1 hour 30 minutes

Gboma Dessi

Spinach and meat stewed with palm oil and dried fish into a dark green sauce, eaten over pâte. Gboma is the African nightshade leaf that gives it its name.

Serves 6 · 1 hour

Tchoukoutou

Sorghum beer brewed in the north of Togo and Benin, served warm and cloudy in calabashes at markets and funerals. Brewing and selling it is women's work and women's income.

Serves Makes about 5 litres · 4 days