Rice slowly simmered in a broth of fish, tomato and tamarind, garnished with vegetables stuffed with parsley and chili, and pieces of thiof. The rice takes on an amber color and a caramelized crust at the bottom of the pot, the "xooñ", which everyone fights over.

Why this dish? National dish cooked in Saint-Louis, its birthplace — the very cradle of thiéboudienne. For Aminata Sow Fall, it is the meal around which an entire household gathers, the living image of Senegalese commensality she describes in her work.

You see, in our home in Saint-Louis, thiéboudienne is not a dish, it is a gathering. I would first make the fish sing in the oil with the roff, that stuffing of parsley and garlic slipped into the flesh, then I would let the rice drink all the broth, slowly, until it took on the color of the river at sunset. My mother said: watch the bottom of the pot, my child, for it is there, in the crispy xooñ, that the cook's honor lies. And when the large dish arrived on the mat, no one asked for their share: the hand that shares is always richer than the one that counts.

How it was made : Thiéboudienne is said to have been born in Saint-Louis in the 19th century, attributed to the cook Penda Mbaye. It was cooked on three stones over a wood fire, in a cast-iron pot where the rice formed its legendary crust; the fish came directly from the pirogues of the river and the ocean.

The contemporary twist : Served as an individual "bowl" version with a piece of xooñ placed like a crispy tuile on top, and a lime wedge.

Aminata Sow Fall · Charactorium