Ivory Coast’s nationwide dish, attiéké, has been granted UN cultural heritage standing, together with Japanese sake, Thai prawn soup and Caribbean cassava bread. But what makes this West African staple so standard? Mayeni Jones, BBC Africa correspondent, grew up in Ivory Coast and is a self-proclaimed superfan.
One of my earliest childhood recollections is listening to road distributors chanting “Attiéké chaud! Attiéké chaud!” or “Hot attiéké!” as they strolled the streets of my neighborhood, balancing massive baskets of this nationwide delicacy on their heads.
After 25 years, ladies carrying individually wrapped parts of fermented cassava couscous nonetheless move by way of Abidjan, Ivory Coast’s largest metropolis, promoting this now UNESCO-recognized dish.
As an alternative choice to rice, it’s troublesome to discover a place of hospitality in Ivory Coast that doesn’t serve attiéké. From the only eating places to the trendiest ones and even on the seashore, it is in every single place.
Attiéké’s reputation has prolonged past the nation’s borders and is now discovered all through Africa, particularly in French-speaking international locations.
It’s additionally extremely popular in neighboring Ghana and my house nation of Sierra Leone, the place they’ve some fairly unorthodox serving solutions.
The distinctive spicy style of attiéké comes from cassava tubers blended with fermented cassava, which provides it its distinctive taste and texture.
Cassava is grated, dried after which steamed earlier than serving.
Filling and versatile, Ivorian chef Rōze Traore describes its texture as “gentle however granular, much like couscous”.
Mr Traore provides that the sunshine tanginess of attiéké provides a novel depth to meals, completely balancing spicy or savory sauces.
For Paule-Odile Béké, an Ivorian chef who competed on the British TV present Masterchef: The Professionals, “bitter, spicy and candy” are the phrases that come to thoughts when describing the style of attiéké.
Gluten-free and accessible in several grain sizes, the best is commonly the most costly. Some locations additionally promote crimson attiéké, soaked in palm oil.
It is eaten with quite a lot of dishes, the preferred model being with grilled hen or fish, a easy, spicy tomato-based sauce, and a sauce of chopped tomatoes and onions.
It was one of many first dishes I cooked for my husband after we met 15 years in the past. He preferred it a lot that he instructed we open a restaurant that served simply that.
Attiéké is an unpretentious dish, though historically reserved for particular events reminiscent of weddings and birthdays, now folks eat it every single day.
Ms. Béké, who comes from a household of attiéké makers, defined a number of the nuances.
“Our flag might be a little bit extra yellow than different areas because of the proximity of the ocean,” he mentioned.
Originally from Jacqueville, a small coastal city the place attiéké is ready, she typically options it on the menu of her New York supper golf equipment.
Even although I left Côte d’Ivoire on the age of 14 when 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 dig baggage of attiéké out of the permafrost on the backside of a chest freezer, hoarding them for dinner visitors I might evangelize.
When I moved to Nigeria, I instructed kinfolk to deliver me care packages from Abidjan or Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone.
It was one of many first issues I regarded for after I moved to Johannesburg, South Africa three months in the past.
Where to search out it’s all the time one of many first questions I’ve for all Ivorians I meet exterior of Ivory Coast.
It clearly tastes scrumptious, nevertheless it’s arduous to explain what makes attiéké so particular.
Ivorian chef Charlie Koffi says that “attiéké is a dish that symbolizes togetherness.”
Like injera, the fermented Ethiopian pancake, or thieboudienne, the Senegalese rice and fish dish, attiéké is greatest loved in a gaggle.
Throughout Côte d’Ivoire, family and friends will collect round a big plate, consuming with their arms and accompanying it with a chilly beer or gentle drink.
For me it is usually the reminiscence of an interrupted childhood. I used to be solely 13 years previous when, on Christmas Eve 1999, whereas I used to be ready for my associates to return over to play, a army coup rocked Ivory Coast.
As troopers handed by way of town, capturing into the air and telling folks to go indoors, my little sister and I huddled collectively in a hallway, the one windowless area in our home.
Our mom was caught within the metropolis and could not be a part of us.
Six months later, my mom despatched us to the UK to reside with our grandmother, fearing that the rising political pressure within the run-up to the 2000 presidential election would result in additional unrest.
Just two years later the nation’s first civil conflict would erupt and it will be one other 15 years earlier than I might return to my childhood house.
But even after I could not return to Babi (Abidjan’s nickname), attiéké was all the time a approach to connect with the place we left behind.
Although I’m not Ivorian, like lots of the expats and financial migrants who moved to the nation through the affluent Nineties, Ivory Coast is my house.
We all communicate Nouchi, the French slang that infests Ivorian music and the streets of its cities, and all of us eat attiéké.
Côte d’Ivoire manages to make folks really feel at house, and attiéké is a part of it.
After ending college, I returned to Ivory Coast for a 12 months to work for a world NGO.
Returning from considered one of our assignments within the west of the nation, an Ivorian colleague defined to us that attiéké was historically eaten primarily with kedjenou, a wealthy, smoky stew made with tomatoes, onions and chili peppers.
It is simmered with native hen or sport in a clay pot over a wooden fireplace, infusing the dish with a deep, flavorful essence.
He claimed that it was solely after the arrival of the French that Ivorians started serving attiéké with grilled fish and hen.
This shouldn’t be one thing I’ve been capable of affirm, nevertheless it has all the time appeared true to me.
Ivorians, whereas fiercely happy with their tradition, have all the time been open to international influences of their delicacies and lots of regional dishes have turn into native staples.
Now that attiéké has been added to the record of intangible cultural heritage in want of pressing safety, maybe extra folks exterior the area will study this scrumptious deal with.
Additional reporting by Danai Nesta Kupemba
