Togo - West Africa - page 869

Some of the most memorable regional specialties include the ubiquitous jollof rice (rice
and vegetables with meat or fish and called riz yollof in Francophone countries) and ked-
jenou (Côte d'Ivoire's national dish of slowly simmered chicken or fish with peppers and
tomatoes). Poulet yassa is a Senegalese dish consisting of grilled chicken in an onion-and-
lemon sauce; the sauce is also used to make poisson yassa (fish), viande yassa (meat) and
just plain old yassa. Tiéboudienne is Senegal's national dish of rice baked in a thick sauce
of fish and vegetables.
MINDING YOUR MANNERS
If you're invited to share a meal with locals, there are a few customs to observe. You'll probably sit with your
hosts on the floor and it's usually polite to take off your shoes. It may be impolite, however, to show the soles of
your feet, so observe closely what your hosts do.
The food, normally eaten by hand (remember to use only the right hand and don't be embarrassed to ask for a
spoon), is served in one or two large dishes. Beginners will just pick out manageable portions with their fingers,
but experts dig deep, forming a ball of rice and sauce with the fingers. Everybody washes their hands before and
after eating. As an honoured guest you might be passed choice morsels by your hosts, and it's usually polite to
finish eating while there's still food in the bowl to show you've had enough.
Street Food
Street food tends to be absurdly cheap and is often delicious, especially the grilled fish.
On street corners and around bus stations, especially in the morning, you'll see small
booths selling pieces of bread with fillings or toppings of butter, chocolate spread,
yoghurt, mayonnaise or sardines. In Francophone countries the bread is cut from fresh
French-style loaves or baguettes, but in Anglophone countries the bread is often a less en-
ticing soft, white loaf.
In the Sahel, usually around markets, women with large bowls covered with a wicker
lid sell yogurt, often mixed with pounded millet and sugar. You can eat it on the spot or
take it away in a plastic bag.
In the evenings you can buy brochettes (small pieces of beef, sheep or goat meat
skewered and grilled over a fire) or lumps of roast meat sold by guys who walk around
pushing a tin oven on wheels. Around markets and bus stations, women serve deep-fried
chips of cassava or some other root crop.
Despite rapid urbanisation, only in Cape Verde (62.6%), Gambia (57.7%), Morocco (57%), Cameroon
(52.1%), Ghana (51.9%) and Côte d'Ivoire (51.3%) does more than half of the population live in cities.
West Africa's least urbanised countries are Niger (17.8%), Burkina Faso (26.5%) and Mali (34.9%).