Welcome back! This week my trip took me to Côte d’Ivoire, a bustling country in West Africa.
For Ivorian cuisine, I once again was a bit stumped as to what people eat, where it comes from and what I would like to write more about.
Côte d’Ivoire did not exactly make this easy for me. As a country with over 60 distinct ethnic groups and lots of varied cultural influences, both traditionally African and some colonial, I had plenty to choose from.
After some digging I came to decide on Attiéké, a super popular food, as the most fitting main dish to represent the country. Attiéké is both a staple ingredient and the name of an entire dish which consists of grilled meat or fish, some sauce or relish and the name-bearer of the dish “attiéké” which is fermented cassava, resembling a tart couscous.
I had a great week of refreshing my high school knowledge of French this week, trying to learn from Ivorians on how to make their foods. This is how it turned out:
This week’s menu (2025/08/17)
This is the central dish of my little culinay trip to Côte d’Ivoire! Grilled fish with a spicy tomato relish and tangy Attiéké. The meal already balances itself out really nicely and is a common Ivorian street food, often also served with chicken, especially further into the country. I decided on tilapia for my rendition, however. This also gave me an excuse to fire up my grill!
These super crispy, salty and slightly sweet plantains go together with the Attiéké and Poisson Braisé so well, that they could almost be considered an integral part of the dish. For a dip the spicy and rich pili pili-sauce lends a great contrast to the fried bananas.
As dessert I served Gbofloto – a dish rooted both in French beignets and African frying techniques. Served with powdered sugar it was the exact right amount of sweet!
For a drink, this ginger lemon juice called Gnamakoudji added both freshness and a kick!
To sum it up:
Honestly, every country is such a treat! Especially if I have little to no knowledge of what the cuisine entails, whipping up a delicious dinner feels even more like a win. I definitely recommend trying these dishes for yourselves, as they turned out beautifully.
As for scores – both me and Mrs. W2P give it a solid 7/10! It was really good, the only downsides were I think the Alloco could have used plantains that were a bit riper and I made a huge mess to clean up – hahaha.
Cost-wise it was really not too bad! Depending on what the fish or chicken you use costs, this could easily be whipped up for two within 20-30 Euros, assuming your kitchen is somewhat stocked with basics.
Stay tuned for what’s next! We’re heading suuuuper far to the southwest! 🏝️
Here’s the full meal
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