Kitting out a kitchen in Accra is the one purchase where the cheap option and the right option are usually the same thing. Ghanaian cooking runs on heavy aluminium pots, a blender, a gas cooker and a coal pot, and all four are sold in the markets at a fraction of what the equivalent costs in a mall.
Where to buy
Markets - Makola, Madina, Kaneshie, Agbogbloshie and every neighbourhood market - sell cookware, coal pots, earthenware, plastics and utensils. The cheapest by a distance, and where the heavy aluminium pots come from.
China Mall and the discount stores are for plastics, small appliances, storage, crockery and anything needed in quantity. Quality tracks price closely; buy the cheap version of a thing you will replace anyway, and the dearer version of anything with a motor or a heating element.
Melcom carries gas cookers, fridges, blenders, microwaves and full sets of crockery, at fixed prices, with a receipt and a branch you can go back to.
Home-used and second-hand shops are worth checking for gas cookers and chest freezers, which are built better than the cheap new ones.
What Accra actually cooks with
- Heavy cast aluminium pots. Sold by size number in every market. They outlast anything at the same price and they are what stew and soup are made in. Buy the size up from what seems right.
- A blender with a strong motor. Grinding pepper, onion, ginger and tomato is daily work, and a cheap blender dies in months. This is the one appliance worth spending on.
- An asanka - the ridged earthenware bowl - and its wooden pestle, for grinding pepper the way it is meant to be done.
- A coal pot and a bag of charcoal. Worth having even in a kitchen with gas: it is what you cook on when the cylinder runs out, and it is what grilled food is done over.
- A gas cylinder and a cooker. The cylinder and the gas are separate purchases from the cooker, and refilling is its own routine.
- A large cooler or a thermos, for water, and for keeping food.
What to check
- Aluminium pots: weight is the test. Lift two of the same size. The heavy one distributes heat and does not warp.
- Non-stick coatings do not survive Ghanaian cooking. High heat, metal spoons and scouring. Buy plain metal and learn the pan, or accept replacing the coated one.
- Anything with a motor: plug it in before you pay. Market sellers and Melcom will both let you.
- Anything with a heating element: ask about the voltage and the warranty. — Where to buy electronics
- Plastic in the sun goes brittle. Storage kept on a balcony lasts a season.
- Gas cookers: check the burners light evenly and the regulator is included. The regulator and the hose are where cheap sets cut corners, and they are the parts that matter for safety. Replace an old hose rather than keeping it.
Buying for a whole kitchen at once
If you are setting up from nothing, go to a market with a list and buy in one trip. Sellers discount a large purchase, and you will carry it in one taxi rather than five.
Buy the pots, the coal pot and the utensils in the market; the cooker, fridge and blender from a shop with a warranty. That split is where the money goes furthest.
— Furnishing a home in Accra — Where to buy food cheaply — Accra’s markets — What a month in Accra costs