Ivory Coast’s nationwide dish attiéké has received UN cultural heritage condition, in conjunction with Eastern sake, Thai prawn soup and Caribbean cassava bread. However what makes this West African staple so customery? BBC Africa correspondent Mayeni Jones grew up in Ivory Coast and is a self-professed superfan.

Certainly one of my earliest adolescence recollections is listening to distributors sing “Attiéké chaud! Attiéké chaud!” or “Hot attiéké!” as they strolled the streets of my neighbourhood, balancing massive baskets of this nationwide delicacy on their heads.

Speedy-forward 25 years and girls wearing in my view wrapped parts of the fermented cassava couscous nonetheless advance throughout Abidjan, Ivory Coast’s greatest town, promoting this now Unesco-recognised dish.

An additional to rice, it’s parched to seek out any hospitality venue within the Ivory Coast that doesn’t grant attiéké. From probably the most plain eateries to the fanciest eating places or even at the seashore, it’s in every single place.

Attiéké’s reputation has spilled over the rustic’s borders, and it’s now discovered throughout Africa, particularly in French-speaking nations.

It’s additionally very customery in neighbouring Ghana and my house nation Sierra Leone, the place they have got some slightly unorthodox serving ideas.

The unique tangy style of attiéké comes from the cassava tubers blended with fermented cassava, which provides it its distinctive flavour and texture.

The cassava is grated, crisp and later steamed ahead of serving.

Filling and flexible, Ivorian chef Rōze Traore describes its texture as “fluffy yet granular, similar to couscous”.

Mr Traore provides that the tiny tanginess of attiéké supplies a singular intensity to foods, completely balancing highly spiced or savoury sauces.

For Paule-Odile Béké, an Ivorian chef who competed on the United Kingdom TV programme Masterchef: The Execs, “sour, zingy and sweet” are the phrases that are evoked when she describes the style of attiéké.

Gluten-free and to be had in numerous grain sizes, the magnificient is ceaselessly the costliest. Some parks even promote pink attiéké, which has been soaked in palm oil.

Eaten with plenty of dishes, probably the most customery model is with chargrilled hen or fish, a easy, highly spiced tomato-based sauce and a salsa of chopped tomatoes and onions.

It was once one of the vital first dishes I cooked for my husband after we met 15 years in the past. He preferred it such a lot, he advised we perceptible a cafe serving simply that.

Attiéké is unpretentious, even though historically reserved for particular events like weddings and birthdays, public now devour it each and every era.

Ms Béké, who comes from a society of attiéké-makers, defined some nuances.

“Our attieke will be a bit more yellow than some other regions due to the proximity of the sea,” she stated.

A local of Jacqueville, a miniature coastal the city the place attiéké is made, she options it closely within the menu of her Unused York supper golf equipment.

Even though I left Ivory Coast on the moment of 14 as civil unrest destitute out, I’ve by no means been in a position to release of attiéké.

In London, I’d walk miles to Congolese stores to excavate baggage of attiéké from the permafrost on the base of a chest freezer, stockpiling it for dinner visitors I may just evangelise.

Once I moved to Nigeria, I mandated relations to deliver me help programs from Abidjan or Freetown, Sierra Leone’s capital.

It was once one of the vital first issues I appeared for once I moved to Johannesburg in South Africa 3 months in the past.

The place to seek out it’s all the time one of the vital first questions I’ve for any Ivorians I meet outdoor Ivory Coast.

Clearly it tastes scrumptious, but it surely’s parched to explain what makes attiéké so particular.

Ivorian chef Charlie Koffi says “attiéké is a dish that symbolizes togetherness”.

Like injera, the fermented Ethiopian pancake, or thieboudienne, Senegal’s rice-and-fish dish, attiéké is highest loved in a gaggle.

Throughout Ivory Coast, pals and society will pack round a bulky plate, consuming with their arms and bath it i’m sick with a chilly beer or comfortable drink.

For me, it’s additionally a reminder of a adolescence which was once trim scale down. I used to be simply 13 years worn when on Christmas Eve 1999, as I waited for my pals to come back spherical for a play games time, an army coup rocked Ivory Coast.

As squaddies drove during the town taking pictures within the breeze and telling public to go indoors, my modest sister and I clung to each and every alternative in a hallway, the one windowless territory in our area.

Our mum was once caught on the town, not able to attach us.

Six months next, my mum despatched us to the United Kingdom to are living with our grandmother, fearing the emerging political rigidity within the run-up to the 2000 presidential elections would lead to additional unrest.

Simply two years next, the rustic’s first civil conflict would crack out, and it could be any other 15 years ahead of I used to be in a position to go back to my adolescence house.

However even if I couldn’t go back to Babi (Abidjan’s nickname), attiéké was once all the time a strategy to join to the playground we had left in the back of.

Even supposing I’m no longer Ivorian, like most of the expatriates and financial migrants who moved to the rustic all through the wealthy Nineties, Ivory Coast is house.

All of us talk Nouchi, the French slang that peppers Ivorian song and the streets of its towns, and all of us devour attiéké.

Ivory Coast has some way of constructing public really feel at house, and attiéké is a part of that.

Once I completed college, I returned to Ivory Coast for a life to paintings for a global NGO.

On our long ago from certainly one of our assignments within the west of the rustic, an Ivorian associate defined that historically, attiéké was once most commonly eaten with kedjenou, a lavish, smoky stew made with tomatoes, onions, and chillies.

That is slow-cooked with native hen or sport in a clay pot over a timber fireplace, infusing the dish with a deep, flavourful essence.

He claimed that it was once most effective later the French arrived that Ivorians began serving attiéké with grilled fish and hen.

This isn’t one thing that I’ve been in a position to verify, but it surely all the time rang true.

Ivorians, even though fiercely proud in their tradition, have all the time been perceptible to international influences of their delicacies and plenty of regional dishes have transform native staples.

Now that attiéké has been added to the checklist of intangible cultural heritage wanting pressing safeguarding, most likely extra public outdoor the area will transform acutely aware of this scrumptious deal with.

Alternative reporting via Danai Nesta Kupemba