Culture of Africa - Cuisine

Cuisine

Africa is a huge continent and the food and drink of Africa reflect local influences, as also glimpses of colonial food traditions, including use of food products like peppers, groundnuts and maize introduced by the colonizers. The African cuisine is a combination of traditional fruits and vegetables, milk, and meat products. The African village diet is often milk, curds and whey. Exotic game and fish are gathered from Africa's vast area.

Traditional African cuisine in most of Africa is characterized by use of starch as a focus, accompanied by stew containing meat or vegetables, or both. Cassava and yams are the main root vegetables. Africans also use steamed greens with hot spices. Dishes of steamed or boiled green vegetables, peas, beans and cereals, starchy cassava, yams and sweet potatoes are widely consumed. In each African locality, there are numerous wild fruits and vegetables which are used as food. Watermelon, banana and plantain are some of the more familiar fruits.

Differences are also noticeable in eating and drinking habits across the continent of Africa. Thus, North Africa, along the Mediterranean from Morocco to Egypt has different food habits than Saharan Africans who consume subsistence diet. Nigeria and coastal parts of West Africa love chilies in food. The non-Muslim population of Africa uses alcoholic beverages, which goes well with most African cuisine. The most familiar alcoholic drink in the interior Africa is the Ethiopian honey wine called Tej.

Cooking techniques of West Africa often combine fish and meat, including dried fish. The cuisine of South Africa and neighboring countries have largely become polyglot cuisines, having influences of several immigrants which include Indians who brought lentil soups (dal) and curries, Malays who came with their curries with spices, and Europeans with "mixed grills" that now include African game meats. Traditionally, East African cuisine is distinctive in the sense that meat products are generally absent. Cattle, sheep and goats were regarded as a form of currency, and are not generally consumed as food. Arabic influences are also reflected in East African cuisine – rice cooked with spices in style, use of cloves, cinnamon, several other spices, and juice.

Ethiopia lays claim to first regular cultivation of coffee, and they have a sort of coffee ceremony, like Japanese tea ceremony. From Ethiopia, coffee spread to Yemen, from there it spread to Arabia, and from there to the rest of the World.