Banku with grilled tilapia, hot pepper and raw onion is the meal Accra eats in the evening, outdoors, with its hands, and it is one of the best things in West Africa.
It is also the dish most worth ordering on a first visit, because nothing about it is an acquired taste.
What banku is
Fermented corn and cassava dough, cooked over heat and turned continuously with a wooden paddle until it is smooth and elastic, then shaped into balls.
Two things separate it from the other Ghanaian doughs:
- It is corn and cassava, which is what makes it smooth and slightly stretchy rather than crumbly.
- It is cooked while being stirred, not steamed in a wrapping. That is physical work, done over a hot fire, and it is why banku is usually bought rather than made at home.
The fermentation gives it a mild sourness — present, but much gentler than kenkey, which is corn alone and fermented harder.
Banku, kenkey and akple
Three fermented corn doughs, routinely confused, and the difference decides what arrives.
| Made from | Cooked by | Sourness | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Banku | Corn and cassava | Stirred over heat | Mild |
| Kenkey | Corn | Steamed in husks or leaves | Sharp |
| Akple | Corn, sometimes with cassava | Stirred over heat | Mild, Ewe version of banku |
Fufu is none of these — it is pounded cassava and plantain, unfermented, and it goes with soup rather than with stew.
— Kenkey and fish — What to eat in Accra
Why tilapia
Tilapia is farmed and fished in the Volta in quantity, it grills well whole, and its firmness survives the scoring and the heat. It arrives whole, scored across the body, stuffed and rubbed with spice, charred at the edges.
The plate is four things and each one is load-bearing:
- Banku, one or two balls
- Grilled tilapia, whole
- Pepper — fresh chilli, onion, tomato and sometimes ginger, ground coarse in an earthenware bowl and served wet
- Raw onion and tomato on the side
Ask for the pepper on the side rather than on the fish if you are unsure. Ghanaian ground pepper is hotter than it looks.
The other things banku goes with
Tilapia is the famous pairing, not the only one:
- Okro stew — the classic everyday combination, and the one most Ghanaian homes eat more often than the fish
- Groundnut soup or palm nut soup
- Grilled or fried fish of any kind, and tinapa
- Shrimp and crab, near the coast
How to eat it
Right hand only. Bowls of water come to the table for washing; use them before and after.
Pinch a piece off the ball, press a small dent into it with your thumb, and use it to lift stew, pepper or a piece of fish.
With soup, swallow rather than chew. With tilapia and pepper, which is what you will most likely be eating, chew normally — the swallow-whole rule belongs to fufu and soup.
Eat the fish properly. Work along the bone with your fingers. The cheek and the collar are the best parts and nobody leaves them.
It is an evening dish
Banku and tilapia is eaten late, outdoors, slowly, and usually with beer. A spot that only fires the grill after dark is not being difficult; that is when the meal happens.
Where to eat it in Accra
Grill spots and chop bars across the city — Osu, Labone, East Legon, Dansoman, Tesano, Achimota, and every neighbourhood has its own. The good ones are outdoors, busy, and grill to order.
Beachside, where the fish has a shorter journey and the setting does some of the work.
Chop bars at lunchtime, more often with okro stew than with tilapia.
— Things to do in Accra — Accra nightlife — Plan a night out
Two practical notes. Tilapia is priced by weight, so the fish is usually brought to the table or to the counter to be chosen before it is grilled — ask the price of the one you are pointing at, not the price of tilapia. And a grilled whole fish takes twenty to thirty minutes, which is the correct amount of time and not a sign that you have been forgotten.
If you are cooking it
Buy the banku. Almost everyone does, including people who cook everything else from scratch — the turning is hard work over a hot fire and a badly turned ball is lumpy. Ready-made dough is sold in every market, and cooked banku is sold ready to eat.