Baka

Fufu Corn

Maize flour beaten into a smooth stiff paste, eaten with njama njama or huckleberry greens in the north-west. The standard plate of the Anglophone highlands.

Serves 6 · 30 minutes

Koki Beans

also Koki corn, Ekoki

Black-eyed beans ground to a paste with palm oil and spinach, wrapped in banana leaf and steamed into a savoury pudding. A Cameroonian street and household staple.

Serves 8 · 2 hours, plus overnight soaking

Ndolé

Bitterleaf boiled repeatedly to draw out the bitterness, then cooked with ground groundnuts, shrimp and meat. Cameroon's national dish, from the Douala coast.

Serves 8 · 2 hours

Mbongo Tchobi

also Black stew, Sauce noire

Fish or meat in a jet-black sauce made from burnt spices — mbongo seed, country onion and njangsa — from the Bassa country around Edéa. Smoky, bitter and unlike anything else in Africa.

Serves 6 · 1 hour 15 minutes

Soya

Beef skewers rubbed in a groundnut and chilli spice mix and grilled over charcoal, sold from evening braziers across the north and in every Yaoundé quarter.

Serves Makes 12 · 40 minutes, plus 2 hours marinating

Eru

Wild forest vine leaves shredded fine and cooked with waterleaf, palm oil and smoked fish, from the south-west. Made for celebrations and eaten with water fufu.

Serves 6 · 1 hour 15 minutes

Achu Soup

also Yellow soup, Taro fufu and yellow soup

Pounded taro served with a bright yellow palm-oil soup coloured with limestone, the ceremonial dish of Cameroon's North West grassfields, eaten with the fingers from a shared bowl.

Serves 8 · 2 hours 30 minutes

Poulet DG

Chicken with fried ripe plantain and vegetables, whose name stands for Directeur Général because it was originally what you served a man of importance.

Serves 6 · 1 hour 15 minutes

Kondre

also Plantain and goat stew

Goat and unripe plantain stewed with country onion and njangsa until the plantain thickens the pot. A grassfields dish cooked for visitors and for the head of the household.

Serves 6 · 1 hour 45 minutes

Sanga

also Maize and cassava leaf

Fresh maize kernels cooked with cassava leaf and palm oil into a thick green-and-gold porridge. A Beti and southern Cameroonian dish of the maize harvest.

Serves 6 · 1 hour 15 minutes

Foléré

Hibiscus juice with pineapple, ginger and mint, sold from freezers in the north and served cold at every celebration. Cameroon's name for what is bissap elsewhere.

Serves 8 · 30 minutes, plus chilling

Bil-Bil

also Millet beer, Bilibili

Sorghum beer of northern Cameroon, brewed by women in great clay pots and sold from the compound door. Sour, cloudy and drunk from a shared calabash.

Serves Makes about 8 litres · 1 hour active, plus 4 days germinating and 3 days fermenting

Bâton de Manioc

also Chikwangue

Fermented cassava paste wrapped in leaves and steamed into a dense sour stick, kept for days and eaten with every sauce. The Congo basin's bread.

Serves 6 · 2 hours, plus 3 days fermenting

Nkumu

also Gnetum leaves, Koko gabonais

Gnetum forest leaves shredded to threads and cooked with palm oil, groundnut and smoked fish. The green that appears on Gabonese plates more than any other.

Serves 6 · 1 hour

Poulet Nyembwe

Chicken in palm nut sauce, Gabon's national dish, cooked with the pulp of the oil palm rather than its oil. Served with bâton de manioc or rice.

Serves 6 · 1 hour 30 minutes

Brochettes de Poisson

Fish skewers grilled at roadside braziers in Libreville and Port-Gentil, served with fried plantain and a chilli sauce.

Serves Makes 12 · 40 minutes, plus 1 hour marinating

Atanga

also African pear, Safou

The purple African pear, softened in hot water or over embers until it turns buttery, salted and eaten with bread or roast maize. Gabon's seasonal obsession.

Serves 4 · 15 minutes

Odika

also Chocolat indigène

Wild mango kernels ground and pressed into dark blocks, melted into a rich sauce with fish or meat. Gabonese call it indigenous chocolate for its colour and its keeping.

Serves 6 · 1 hour 15 minutes

Feuilles de Manioc

Pounded cassava leaves with palm oil, smoked fish and groundnut, cooked long. The Congo basin's most-eaten green, and Gabon's version leans on the groundnut.

Serves 6 · 1 hour 45 minutes

Poisson au Nyembwe

also Fish in palm nut sauce

Fish cooked in the thick orange pulp of the palm nut, the sauce that defines Gabonese cooking and gives the national chicken dish its name.

Serves 6 · 1 hour

Folong

also Amaranth greens

Amaranth leaves stewed with tomato, onion and smoked fish, the simplest and commonest Gabonese green dish.

Serves 6 · 40 minutes

Vin de Palme

Palm wine tapped from raffia or oil palms, drunk fresh or fermented, and central to Bwiti ceremony as well as ordinary sociability.

Serves Varies · Tapped daily

Gozo

Cassava flour cooked into a stiff paste, the daily starch of the Central African Republic. Rolled in the palm and dipped in whatever sauce there is.

Serves 6 · 30 minutes

Boule de Manioc

also Gozo ball, Cassava fufu

Cassava flour worked into a smooth dense ball, the Central African staple, torn off and used to lift sauce. Made in every household daily.

Serves 6 · 30 minutes

Kanda ti Nyma

Meatballs of beef and ground squash seeds cooked in a tomato and groundnut sauce, wrapped in leaves in the traditional version. A dish of the Ubangi river country.

Serves 6 · 1 hour 30 minutes

Sauce Arachide

also Groundnut sauce, Kanda ti nyma

Groundnut paste cooked with meat, tomato and chilli into a thick red-brown sauce, the dish that turns up at every Central African table.

Serves 6 · 1 hour 30 minutes

Makara

Fried dough balls sold at markets and roadsides with sweet tea, eaten at breakfast or bought by the handful for a journey.

Serves Makes 20 · 2 hours 15 minutes

Kanya

also Peanut brittle bar, Kanyah

Roasted peanuts pounded with sugar and a little rice flour and pressed into bars, sold at markets and bus stops across the Central African Republic.

Serves Makes about 20 bars · 40 minutes

Poulet à la Moambé

Chicken cooked in palm nut pulp with chilli and garlic, made for guests and celebrations across the Congo basin. Orange, rich and served over cassava.

Serves 6 · 1 hour 30 minutes

Koko

Forest vine leaves shredded very fine and cooked with palm oil, smoked fish and groundnut. The same plant as Cameroonian eru, gathered from the same forest.

Serves 6 · 1 hour

Poisson Fumé aux Feuilles

also Smoked fish with greens

Smoked river fish cooked with cassava or gnetum leaves and palm oil, the standard meal along the Ubangi and its tributaries.

Serves 6 · 1 hour 15 minutes

Ngbako

Maize or cassava beer fermented in villages and drunk from a shared vessel at gatherings and funerals. Cloudy, sour and drunk young.

Serves Makes about 5 litres · 3 days

Chikwangue

Fermented cassava steamed in leaves into a dense sour loaf, sliced and eaten with every sauce. Keeps for days without refrigeration, which is the point.

Serves 6 · 2 hours, plus 3 days fermenting

Saka Madesu

also Beans with cassava leaves

Beans and cassava leaves cooked together with palm oil, the cheapest full meal in the Congo and among the most nutritionally complete.

Serves 6 · 2 hours 15 minutes, plus soaking

Poulet à la Moambé

Chicken in palm nut sauce, claimed as national dish on both banks of the river. In Brazzaville it is served with chikwangue and a bowl of pili pili.

Serves 6 · 1 hour 30 minutes

Poulet aux Feuilles de Manioc

also Chicken with cassava leaves

Chicken cooked into pounded cassava leaves with palm oil until the leaves darken and the meat falls apart, the Brazzaville Sunday dish.

Serves 6 · 2 hours

Makayabu

Salt cod soaked, fried and served in tomato sauce with plantain, sold from lunch stalls in Brazzaville. Imported salt fish became a Congolese staple a century ago.

Serves 6 · 45 minutes, plus 24 hours soaking

Mbala Pinda

also Peanut sticks, Pinda

Ground peanuts and maize flour steamed in leaf into firm sticks, sold at Brazzaville markets and eaten as a snack or a light meal.

Serves Makes about 12 · 1 hour 30 minutes

Liboke ya Ntaba

Goat steamed in banana leaf parcels with onion, chilli and herbs, made for celebrations and opened at the table.

Serves 6 · 2 hours

Saka Saka

Pounded cassava leaves cooked with palm oil and smoked fish, eaten several times a week across the country. The pounding is done in a tall wooden mortar.

Serves 6 · 1 hour 45 minutes

Maboke

also Fish in leaves, Liboke ya mbisi

River fish seasoned and wrapped in marantaceae leaves and steamed or grilled in the parcel, so the fish cooks in its own juice. The purest Congo basin cooking there is.

Serves 4 · 50 minutes

Malafu

Palm wine, drunk fresh from the gourd or left to sour, and the drink poured at every gathering and libation on both banks of the Congo.

Serves Varies · Tapped daily