Travel| Exploring Ghanaian Food

The fun part about visiting a new country is trying out their food. I always make a point of eating food I’ve never had before when I get the opportunity to, even back home in Nigeria. I’m not about to name all the weird things I’ve eaten in this post but just so you get to know me better, I’ve eaten frog legs and ostrich meat.

On my first night in Ghana, we tried Ghana Jollof. It’s definitely not similar in taste to Naija Jollof. I’m not about to start no wars so I’m just going to move on.

On my second day, I visited Chez Clarrise Restaurant which is one of the popular restaurants in Osu. We waited for a long time to get served until we went inside to place our orders ourselves. To be fair, it was Friday evening and it was really busy.  I ordered Attieke and grilled tilapia fish.

Attieke is a dish made with grated fermented cassava which is then steamed. It is originally an Ivorian dish but it’s quite popular in Ghana. It’s really similar in look to couscous but it’s far from it in taste. Attieke is pretty much Eba (cassava dough; a very popular Nigerian dish) in little pieces and for someone that hadn’t eaten Eba in years, I couldn’t eat it halfway. On the other hand, the grilled tilapia fish was so good, I devoured all of mine and ate the other half of my sister’s.

On my third day in Accra, we went to Buka which is a restaurant most Nigerians visit when they are in Accra. I had been to Buka before with my family but I ate Nigerian food. It was a Saturday and just a few minutes after their opening hour but it was already packed. Once we found seats, we got the menu and placed our orders. This was a time of exploration so I ordered Banku and Palmnut soup .

Banku is a mixture of cassava dough, corn dough, salt and water. It tasted a bit like Fufu and again I didn’t like it very much but my sister devoured it. The Palmnut soup on the other hand was so good I almost ate it all even though the portion can feed three people. It was really similar in taste to Gbegiri, which is a Nigerian soup made with beans.

One of my sisters ordered Waakye which I believe is a safe meal for anyone who isn’t very adventurous. No shade meant Dee 😊

Besides these meals, we also ate at the hotel and the weddings I originally travelled to Accra for and I fell in love with shito. Shito is a hot black pepper sauce that makes everything taste better. I loved it so much I’m going to learn to make it.

Do you like to explore new food when you visit new places?

Which of these meals are you trying when you visit Ghana?

Thanks for reading.

Mariam Shittu