Guinea-Bissau
Rice and fish, two great caldos of peanut and palm — and cashew in everything, right down to the wine.
Guinea-Bissau eats rice at nearly every meal, almost always with fish — the country has plenty of both. The two dishes to know are its caldos: caldo de mancarra, a spicy peanut-and-shrimp stew, and caldo de chabéu, a rich broth strained from palm fruit with smoked fish and root vegetables, both spooned over rice.
Cashew is the thread through everything — the country's great export crop, but also, fermented, its emblematic drink, the potent cana de caju. Palm oil and groundnut define the sauces; sweet green warga tea is brewed all day long; and out in the Bijagós islands the food turns to grilled mangrove oysters and island rice. A small Lusophone-Creole pocket cooking quite unlike its Francophone neighbours.
- Caldo de mancarra (spicy peanut-and-shrimp stew)
- Caldo de chabéu (palm-fruit broth with fish)
- Jollof rice (palm-oil tomato rice)
- Arroz de peixe (rice cooked with fish)
- Grilled mangrove oysters
- Cana de caju (cashew wine)
- Warga (sweet green tea)
