A FOOD TRADITION

Casamance Cuisine

Casamance cuisine comes from southern Senegal, especially the riverine, mangrove, and forested areas around Ziguinchor, while sharing practices with Guinea-Bissau and The Gambia. Rice is central, accompanied by freshwater or coastal fish, oysters, shellfish, cassava, leafy greens, peanuts, and palm oil or palm fruit. Cooks commonly pound aromatics, simmer fish with greens, grill or smoke seafood, and prepare rice with richly flavored stocks. Caldou, a lime-accented fish and greens preparation, and kanja, an okra-based seafood stew, are characteristic examples. Palm-oil rice dishes and preparations using mangrove oysters further distinguish the region’s foodways from northern Senegalese patterns.

Catalogue preview Cuisine connections may be unreviewed. Regional comparisons include their food references and do not establish the ingredients of a particular meal.