 relish.
lnjera: classic Ethiopian bread prepared like a huge pancake from Teff (fine millet flour). Then pancakes are placed, overlapping on a small table or large serving tray – at once becoming tablecloth, dish (for a stew of meat and/or vegetables) and then torn to scoop up the food.
Trio: Swahili word for a combination of cooked vegetables, cubed or chopped and seasoned with oil and salt and pepper. Favorite in East Africa.
Ji Akwukwo: very thick stew of many vegetables plus yams. Favorite in West Africa.
Keuke: corn bread prepared from wet fermented corn flour. Sour in East Africa, sweeter and whiter in West Africa.
Kikwanga: Congo name for disc-shaped bread made from cassava flour. The same bread in Jamaica is called Bammy and in the southern United States pan bread.
Kuli-Kuli: delicacy made from frying the residual groundnut paste after the oil has been extracted.
Madafu: immature coconut water, a beverage.
Maheu: traditional drink for women and children; slightly alcoholic sweet liquid left from soaking cooked Fufu.
Mahshi: almost any available variety of vegetable stuffed with a mix of ground meat or fish and rice and baked with tomato sauce.
Manhanga: term used to refer to many varieties of squash and pumpkin.
Manioc or Cassava: general name given to any starch roots from which tapioca and other flours may be made.
Manwiwa: watermelon. Mealie: corn. Milioku: soup.
Milioku Ngozi: also called Blessing Soup. A hot West African soup usually made with a whole chick-en and yams. Soup is served first, then meat and vegetables sliced and served afterward. Usually served at planting and harvest celebrations.
Millet: the small grains of a cereal grass, used in preparation of some foods.
Mseto: Swahili word for rice or lentils; usually cooked into a thick sauce, highly seasoned and served with meat or fish.
Mudumbe: the succulent root fibers from the elephant ear plant.
Munyu: salt. Mupunga: rice.
Muriwo: relish or sauces accompanying Fufu. These are an important part of the diet’s nutrients, containing not only a wide variety of vegetables and seasonings (hot), but often meat and fish and bones, when available.
Naarjes: South African tangerines, deep in color and rich in flavor.
Nhopi: a Fufu or porridge made from pumpkin. Nsiko: crabs.
Ofe Nsala: a fiery pepper sauce made with a base of meat or fish. This is one of the most popular things served to women with new babies and may comprise the main part of the diet, diluted as a soup or gruel, or eaten with Fufu.
Olilie: one version of the seasoning paste made from dried, fermented, and cooked seeds, used for flavoring.
Oka Esiri Esi: a corn and milk soup.
Olele: a baked or steamed Nigerian pudding made from ground peas, onion, and salt.
Oporo Ukwu: lobster.
Pan Bread: Southern United States name for a disc-shaped bread prepared from cassava flour.
Plantain: tropical plant bearing a fruit similar to the banana, usually eaten cooked.
Pombe: beer made from plantains or bananas.
Rupiza: thin porridge or gruel made from powdered dried beans.
Sabal Palmetto: the young sprouting leaves of cocoyams and sweet potatoes, cut and cooked as greens for relishes.
Sorghum: cereal grass grown for grain or fodder.
Suya: cut up meats marinated in peanut oil then skewered and cooked.
Swahili Yeast: yeast made from the fermentation of ripe plantains, sugar, water, and wheat flour. Used as leavening agent for breads, buns, and fried cookies.
Teff: fine millet flour. Tembo: palm wine.
Togwa: beverage made from fermented germinated sorghum.
Tseme or Nhembatemba: special pot used for storing Dovi (groundnut butter).
Tuwo: spicy okra sauce.
Tuwonsaffe: in northern Ghana, the daily Fufu is allowed to ferment in this “sourpot” and the Fufu needed for meals is scooped from the Tuwonsaffe.
Ugali: Tanzanian staple cornmeal porridge of Fufu.
Ulezi: a slow cooked porridge of milk and millet, flavored with butter and lemon juice. A food for convalescents.
Yam: the nutritious white yam is a powerfully symbolic staple food frequently staving off malnutrition and starvation, particularly in West Africa. Oft