Category Archives: West African food and drink

‘Africa in a glass’: Abidjan cocktail week mixes local flavours for global palates

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Ivory Coast drinks festival aims to champion and change perceptions of alcohol made in the region

At an event in Abidjan in late October, Alexandre Quest Bede noticed someone staring at him. Then the stranger walked up to him with a T-shirt and asked for an autograph.

“He pointed at me excitedly and said: ‘You’re Monsieur Gnamakou, I know you from Instagram!’” recalls Bede at the poolside bar of Bissa, a boutique hotel in the upmarket Deux Plateaux neighbourhood on the eve of Abidjan cocktail week.

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Ghanaian fritters and Venezuelan corncakes: Yotam Ottolenghi’s street food recipes

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Let’s travel again (at least in our kitchens): to south America, for arepas stuffed with feta, chilli and avocado, and then to west Africa for deep-fried plantain fritters

One of the many joys of street food is that you can move on from one country to another as soon as your tummy allows. Last week, we were in Mauritius and Brazil, snacking on jackfruit kati rolls and prawn pasties, and, having had seven days to digest those, I hope you’re all up for round two today. This time, we’re off to Ghana and Venezuela. As with so much street food, these dishes are best eaten by hand, standing up outside next to people you’ve just met. I may not be able to conjure up new friends, especially in these times, but I can supply recipes that will transport you to far-flung places.

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The 20 best curry recipes

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From Asma Khan’s saag paneer to Lopè Ariyo’s suya lamb, our exploration of the wider world of curry takes in recipes from south Asia, Nigeria and Japan

It was dal that done it, in Luton, Lucknow, London. When the raisin-studded school dinners of my childhood were replaced with sophisticated south-Asian cooking. Here we also celebrate some of the wider world of curry: recipes from Nigeria, Japan, Vietnam, the Caribbean. From Uyen Luu’s ginger duck to Shuko Oda’s keema curry, and Asma Khan’s saag paneer to Lopè Ariyo’s suya lamb. There is a pumpkin curry, a prawn curry, a black-eyed bean curry; Vivek Singh’s perfect vindaloo, Meera Sodha’s tomato curry and Madhur Jaffrey’s peerless chicken korma. In short, the 20 best curry dishes from some of the finest cookery writers around.

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