User:Kjc8tpe/Cuisine of Equatorial Guinea

Vegetables
The basic foods of this cuisine are cassavas and other roots such as sweet potatoes, yams, enviuñ, dahlia roots, and taros. Vegetables such as okra, lettuce, carrots, tomato, and corn are also eaten, although their agriculture is not widespread. Rice and pasta are other important foods for this cuisine.

Many tropical fruits are eaten in Equatorial Guinea such as coconuts, papayas, bananas, breadfruit, and pineapples. Mango is known as mangüeña, guava as guebá, avocado as pia, and soursop as sawasawa. The bananas, which are sweet and eaten for dessert, differ from plantains, which are referred to as fried bananas. Some fruits unknown outside of tropical Africa but common in Equatorial Guinea are: el chube, loutrot, the African pear sawaplom, and the syncarp.

Meats and Fish
This cuisine also includes fish, fresh or smoked, such as bigeye scads, various types of snappers, Guinean congers, borriqueta porgy, and Atlantic swordfish. In the coastal areas there is a large variety of seafood, including milk sharks, daisy stingrays, lobsters, and Guinean shrimp, as well as blue crab and sea snails. Crayfish are collected from rivers.

As for meats from domesticated animals, chicken and goat meat are the most common as well as beef from zebus and cows. Nevertheless, they are just as common as bushmeat, which are hunted in the jungle, such as antelope, crocodiles, porcupines, gazelles, African pouched rats, monkeys, toucans, bats, pangolins, turtles and snakes. Bushmeat is cooked in tomato sauce. For food safety reasons, authorities have banned the sale of these meats in markets, so their consumption is in decline.

Spices and Condiments
Spiciness is traditional to this country’s cuisine. Chili peppers are used whole, cut up, or well ground. The seed from the African mango, called andok or nhoha, is collected for local consumption, although when there are good harvests, they are also exported. This tree drops its fruits around January, at which time the women collect it, separate the seeds from the pulps, clean them and let them dry. Then they are roasted and crushed until the seeds release their oils and form a paste. This paste is put in a pot lined with banana leaves, crushed, and cooked on a fire until two days later when it is dry and hard as a rock. This way it can be conserved for a long time and when it’s needed, the rock is grated. This resulting spice is called chocolate and it has no relation to the chocolate from cocoa.

Harvested from palm trees are palm kernels or palm dates (ekang), called palm almonds in other countries, from which a thick and reddish oil is extracted. These kernels have a red and fibrous external part that is rich in fat as well as a black, hard, inedible pit.

A popular condiment in Equatorial Guinea is Maggi, a commercial flavoring and ingredient in many dishes.

Sauces
The sauces in Equatorial Guinea generally are spicy and are prepared with all types of vegetables: peanuts, tomatoes, chocolate, okra, peppers, palm kernels...etc. They are mostly used for cooking, but also for dipping. A traditional sauce that accompanies the cuisine is peanut sauce.

These meals are usually accompanied by cooked flour balls of cassava, taro or plantain. The chicken can be served in the above-mentioned peanut sauce, cream with rice, or boiled plantains. You can also find pangolin with chocolate. Fried plantain can be found all over the country, with the name kelewele. Paella, potato omelet and stew are dishes inherited from the colonial Spanish that can be found, above all, in urban areas such as Malabo and Bata.

Desserts
Having dessert after a meal is not very common, but some typical sweets still exist:


 * Akwadu, which can be eaten for breakfast or dessert, is a simple recipe with bananas cut in slices or in half, bathed in butter, and roasted in the oven or on the grill until they get golden brown. They are also usually flavored with orange and lemon juice, sugar or honey, and sometimes cinnamon. It is served topped with grated coconut.
 * Buñuelos, a sweet fried dough dessert of spanish influence
 * Concodos, which are basically caramelized peanuts
 * Various tropical fruits, mentioned previously, that are taken between meals, for dessert, or are opened and served sliced to guests as an appetizer.


 * Macara or makará is a fried ball of smashed ripe bananas with flour, sugar, and yeast. It is all kneaded, allowed to rest overnight, and fried in small balls.

Drinks

 * Betong, sugar water. Cunú has flour and lemon
 * Various types of beer, which have turned into the most popular drink in the country, although none are produced nationally. Some brands found in Equatorial Guinea are San Miguel and Saigon.
 * Ginger Ale, a drink made from ginger.
 * Tropical fruit juice
 * Malamba, a drink made from fermented cane sugar
 * Osang, an African tea also called contrite
 * Palm wine or topé, an alcoholic beverage consisting of the sap of various  species of palm trees and coconut trees that are produced locally


 * Grape wine, although it’s not produced,  is consumed and sometimes known as nela.