Why don’t we know more about African food?

Perhaps it’s that the current culinary paradigm lumps the diverse foodways of more than 1.2 billion people in 54 countries into a single group. Distilling ‘African food’ into a handful of distinctive dishes is as problematic as defining European food by a single schnitzel or plate of pasta.

There are the heady flavours of the Maghreb, a land of couscous, dates and almonds. The curries of West Africa are built on fried onions, tomatoes and chillies, while okra and peanuts thicken stews that are served with cassava, plantain and tomato-laced jollof rice. Locals around Lake Victoria eat jet-black fly burgers – providing a nutritious source of protein – when the bugs swarm in the wet season. From South Africa to Botswana, the food of the Cape counts influences from the local San tribes as well as Europe, India and Malaysia.

While you may be familiar with South Africa’s bobotie (mince pie), braai (barbecue) and biltong, the new wave of African flavours is coming from the west of the continent via kelewele (spicy fried plantain from Ghana), Senegalese yassa (marinated chicken with caramelised onions and lemon) and maafe, the moreish West African peanut stew.

One of the first high-end Nigerian restaurants in London, Ikoyi, recently earned a Michelin star. In New York, Dakar-born chef Pierre Thiam is dishing up modern pan-African comfort food at Teranga. That might look like his version of jollof, made with fonio – a West African ancient grain – instead of rice and served with Moroccan-inspired chermoula-roasted salmon and a Senegalese black-eyed pea salad. Get it while it’s hot.

See here for Warren Mendes’ recipe for bobotiespiced sosaties.