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Ivory Coast’s nationwide dish attiéké has gained UN cultural heritage standing, together with Japanese sake, Thai prawn soup and Caribbean cassava bread. But what makes this West African staple so common? BBC Africa correspondent Mayeni Jones grew up in Ivory Coast and is a self-professed superfan.
One of my earliest childhood recollections is listening to distributors sing “Attiéké chaud! Attiéké chaud!” or “Hot attiéké!” as they strolled the streets of my neighbourhood, balancing massive baskets of this nationwide delicacy on their heads.
Fast-forward 25 years and ladies carrying individually wrapped parts of the fermented cassava couscous nonetheless stroll throughout Abidjan, Ivory Coast’s greatest metropolis, promoting this now Unesco-recognised dish.
An various to rice, it is laborious to search out any hospitality venue within the Ivory Coast that does not serve attiéké. From essentially the most primary eateries to the fanciest eating places and even on the seaside, it is in all places.
Attiéké’s recognition has spilled over the nation’s borders, and it’s now discovered throughout Africa, particularly in French-speaking nations.
It’s additionally very talked-about in neighbouring Ghana and my residence nation Sierra Leone, the place they’ve some pretty unorthodox serving strategies.
The distinctive tangy style of attiéké comes from the cassava tubers combined with fermented cassava, which provides it its distinctive flavour and texture.
The cassava is grated, dried after which steamed earlier than serving.
Filling and versatile, Ivorian chef Rōze Traore describes its texture as “fluffy yet granular, similar to couscous”.
Mr Traore provides that the slight tanginess of attiéké gives a singular depth to meals, completely balancing spicy or savoury sauces.
For Paule-Odile Béké, an Ivorian chef who competed on the UK TV programme Masterchef: The Professionals, “sour, zingy and sweet” are the phrases that come to thoughts when she describes the style of attiéké.
Gluten-free and out there in numerous grain sizes, the best is usually the most costly. Some locations even promote purple attiéké, which has been soaked in palm oil.
Eaten with a wide range of dishes, the preferred model is with chargrilled rooster or fish, a easy, spicy tomato-based sauce and a salsa of chopped tomatoes and onions.
It was one of many first dishes I cooked for my husband once we met 15 years in the past. He appreciated it a lot, he urged we open a restaurant serving simply that.
Attiéké is unpretentious, though historically reserved for particular events like weddings and birthdays, folks now eat it day by day.
Ms Béké, who comes from a household of attiéké-makers, defined some nuances.
“Our attieke will be a bit more yellow than some other regions due to the proximity of the sea,” she mentioned.
A local of Jacqueville, a small coastal city the place attiéké is made, she options it closely within the menu of her New York supper golf equipment.
Although I left Ivory Coast on the age of 14 as civil unrest broke out, I’ve by no means been capable of let go of attiéké.
In London, I’d journey miles to Congolese retailers to excavate baggage of attiéké from the permafrost on the backside of a chest freezer, stockpiling it for dinner company I may evangelise.
When I moved to Nigeria, I mandated family members to carry me care packages from Abidjan or Freetown, Sierra Leone’s capital.
It was one of many first issues I seemed for once I moved to Johannesburg in South Africa three months in the past.
Where to search out it’s all the time one of many first questions I’ve for any Ivorians I meet outdoors Ivory Coast.
Obviously it tastes scrumptious, nevertheless it’s laborious to explain what makes attiéké so particular.
Ivorian chef Charlie Koffi says “attiéké is a dish that symbolizes togetherness”.
Like injera, the fermented Ethiopian pancake, or thieboudienne, Senegal’s rice-and-fish dish, attiéké is finest loved in a bunch.
Across Ivory Coast, family and friends will collect round a giant plate, consuming with their palms and washing it down with a chilly beer or smooth drink.
For me, it is also a reminder of a childhood which was lower brief. I used to be simply 13 years outdated when on Christmas Eve 1999, as I waited for my pals to return spherical for a play date, a army coup rocked Ivory Coast.
As troopers drove by way of town taking pictures within the air and telling folks to move indoors, my little sister and I clung to one another in a hallway, the one windowless area in our home.
Our mum was caught on the town, unable to hitch us.
Six months later, my mum despatched us to the UK to dwell with our grandmother, fearing the rising political stress within the run-up to the 2000 presidential elections would end in additional unrest.
Just two years later, the nation’s first civil battle would get away, and it could be one other 15 years earlier than I used to be capable of return to my childhood residence.
But even once I could not return to Babi (Abidjan’s nickname), attiéké was all the time a means to hook up with the place we had left behind.
Even although I’m not Ivorian, like lots of the expatriates and financial migrants who moved to the nation throughout the affluent Nineties, Ivory Coast is residence.
We all communicate Nouchi, the French slang that peppers Ivorian music and the streets of its cities, and all of us eat attiéké.
Ivory Coast has a means of constructing folks really feel at residence, and attiéké is a part of that.
When I completed college, I returned to Ivory Coast for a yr to work for a global NGO.
On our means again from considered one of our assignments within the west of the nation, an Ivorian colleague defined that historically, attiéké was largely eaten with kedjenou, a wealthy, smoky stew made with tomatoes, onions, and chillies.
This is slow-cooked with native rooster or recreation in a clay pot over a wooden hearth, infusing the dish with a deep, flavourful essence.
He claimed that it was solely after the French arrived that Ivorians began serving attiéké with grilled fish and rooster.
This shouldn’t be one thing that I’ve been capable of affirm, nevertheless it all the time rang true.
Ivorians, though fiercely happy with their tradition, have all the time been open to overseas influences of their delicacies and lots of regional dishes have develop into native staples.
Now that attiéké has been added to the listing of intangible cultural heritage in want of pressing safeguarding, maybe extra folks outdoors the area will develop into conscious of this scrumptious deal with.
Additional reporting by Danai Nesta Kupemba
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