Cooking Gambia

 Gastronomy

An international and Gambian cuisine is offered in most hotels and restaurants. Gambia's food specialities are numerous. The benachin, also called jollof rice, is a mixture of meat and spicy rice in a tomato sauce, served with vegetables. The base, Nyebe, is a chicken or beef stew, served with green beans. Plasas is a meat and smoked fish dish, cooked in palm oil and served with green vegetables. You can also find Yassa chicken (chicken that is first marinated, then grilled, and served with onions and tomato sauce), domoda (rice with meat or fish served with a tomato-peanut sauce). Regarding fish, barracudas and grupas are excellent. Try the warthog (bushpig) for game lovers.
Fruit from the markets is delicious: mangoes, oranges, grapefruits, papayas, bananas...
Concerning beverages: - The bissap, full of vitamin C, that you can prepare yourself by buying bissap flowers on the market that you plunge into boiling water for 5 minutes. Let it cool down, filter it through a cloth and sugar it according to your taste. Serve cold.
-Coconut milk. Along the roads, small vendors sell it to you. Very energetic.
- "Bouye juice", also called "monkey bread": baobab's fruit. Active therapy against minor diarrheas.
-Many Gambians drink malta; try it. Vinto is a soft drink, like Fanta (less bubbly), but red and whose taste can remind you of certain cough syrups.
- The local beer, Julbrew, is fairly bitter.
In terms of alcohol, there is no particular restriction: you will find wines, beers and strong alcohols, a little everywhere.