Fufu

Fufu, also spelled foofoo, foufou, or fu fu, is a staple food of West and Central Africa. It is a thick paste or porridge usually made by boiling starchy root vegetables in water and pounding with a large mortar and pestle until the desired consistency is reached. In the French-speaking region of Cameroon, fufu is sometimes called couscous, not to be confused with the Moroccan dish couscous.^[1]

In Western Africa, foofoo is usually made from yams, sometimes combined with cocoyam, plantains, or maize. In Central Africa, fufu is often made from cassava, as is the Liberian dumboy. Fufu can also be made from semolina, rice, or even instant potato flakes. Often, the dish is still made by traditional methods: pounding and beating the base substance in a mortar with a wooden spoon. In contexts where poverty is not an issue, or where modern appliances are readily available, a food processor may also be used.

In Western and Central Africa, the more common method is to serve a mound of fufu along with a sauce made from okra, fish, tomato, etc. The diner pinches off a small ball of fufu and makes an indentation with the thumb. This reservoir is then filled with sauce, and the ball is eaten. In Ghana and Nigeria, the ball is often not chewed but swallowed whole. In fact, among the older generation, chewing fufu is a faux-pas.

A similar staple in Sub-Saharan Africa is ugali, which is usually made from maize flour and is eaten in southern and east Africa. The name ugali is used in Kenya and Tanzania; closely related staples are called nshima in Zambia, nsima in Malawi, sadza in Zimbabwe, pap in South Africa, posho in Uganda and ghaat in Eritrea and Ethiopia.

In Caribbean nations with populations of West African origin, such as Cuba and the Dominican Republic, plantains are mashed and then other ingredients are added to the plantain mash such as fried onions, garlic, olive oil, vinegar, and seasoned morsels of chicken or bacon. In Cuba it is called fufu de platano, in the Dominican Republic mangu, and in Puerto Rico mofongo.

Foo-foo is frequently mentioned in Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart.

References

^ DeLancey, Mark W., and Mark Dike DeLancey (2000). Historical Dictionary of the Republic of Cameroon, 3rd ed. Lanham, Maryland: The Scarecrow Press, p. 134.

External links

BBC: Ghana's cooks take to fast fufu about microwavable instant fufu

[1] DeLancey, Mark W., and Mark Dike DeLancey (2000). Historical Dictionary of the Republic of Cameroon, 3rd ed. Lanham, Maryland: The Scarecrow Press, p. 134.

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