In the field, the meal revolves around a base of fermented starch (cassava bread, or kwanga) that you break by hand and dip into a rich palm oil sauce. Around it gravitate a fish or bushmeat smoked to withstand the climate, a drink drawn from the palm tree, and a sweet banana snack. Everything is supplied by the porters and villages along the way, supplemented by preserves and coffee brought from Europe. You sit on a mat, not in successive courses: everything arrives together, and each person draws from the common base.

Drawn from the fruit of the *Elaeis guineensis*, the palm tree that Büttner himself herborized, this scarlet, fruity oil binds almost all the dishes of the coast. It is the red thread — literally — of the cuisine he tasted in the Congo and Loango.