West Afrca Cuisine

A typical West African meal is heavy with starchy items, light on meat and generous on fat. Fufu, a semi-solid starchy mass similar to mashed potatoes or polenta, is served with soups and stews, such as egusi. Fufu is often made from starchy root vegetables such as yams, cocoyams, or cassava, but also from cereal grains or plantains.
Another characteristic is the hot spices, including peppers and chiles. Seeds of Guinea pepper (Aframomum melegueta; also called grains of paradise or melagueta pepper) a native West African plant, were used as a spice and even reached Europe, through North African middlemen, during the Middle Ages. Centuries before the influence of Europeans, West African people were trading with the Arab world and spices like cinnamon, cloves mint were not unknown and became part of the local flavorings. Centuries later, the Portuguese, French and British influenced the regional cuisines, but only to a limited extent. However, as far as is known, it was European explorers who introduced the American Chile, or chili(Capsicum) to Africa sometime soon after Columbus sailed to America an both chillies and tomatoes have become ubiquitous components of West African cuisines.
Thus, in essence, the local cuisine and recipes of West Africa continue to remain deeply entrenched in the local customs and traditions, with ingredients like rice, peanuts (another plant from the New World, similar to the Bambara groundnut and Hausa groundnut of Africa), black-eyed beans, brown beans, and root vegetables such as yams, cocoyams, sweet potatoes, and cassava (yet another American plant). Cooking is done in multiple ways: roasting, baking, boiling,Frying, mashing, and spicing. A range of sweets and savories are also prepared. Use of items introduced by colonizers are also not uncommon – like plantains, peppers and green peas, citrus fruits, and pineapples, which are legacy of slave ship traffic between Africa and the New World.
Cooking techniques of West Africa often combine fish and meat, including dried fish. Flaked and dried, fish is often fried in oil, and sometimes cooked in sauce made up with hot peppers, onions and tomatoes various spices and water to prepare a highly flavored stew. In some areas, beef and mutton are preferred, and chevon (goat meat) is the dominant red meat. It is common to have a preponderance of seafood and the seafood, as earlier stated, is sometimes also mixed with other meat products. Eggs and chickens are also preferred.
As far as beverages, water has a very strong ritual significance in many West African nations (particularly in dry areas) and water is often the first thing an African host will offer his/her guest. Palm wine is also a common beverage made from the fermented sap of various types of palm trees and is usually sold in sweet (less-fermented, retaining more of the sap's sugar) or sour (fermented longer, making it stronger and less sweet) varieties.
Amala (a dish of processed yams) and Ewedu (a soup) are typically eaten by the Yoruba people.