The Yoruba meal is not divided into starter, main course, and dessert. It is built around a starchy 'staple' that is swallowed without chewing (pounded yam, cereal paste), which is dipped into an obè, a soup-sauce rich in palm oil, ground seeds, and seafood. Around it revolve the offerings (oúnjẹ funfun, white dishes) placed before the orishas and the libations poured onto the ground before the living drink. For Olokun, orisha of the abyss, the sea provides the essentials: fish, shellfish, salt, and water itself becomes sacred matter.

Pressed from the fruit of the oil palm, epo pupa colors Yoruba soups a deep red and gives them a fatty, slightly smoky taste. With it come two invisible accomplices: iru (fermented locust bean seeds, powerfully umami) and ede gbígbẹ (dried and ground shrimp or crayfish), which sign almost all savory dishes of the coast. For Olokun, this red evokes the coral of the depths as much as the wealth he bestows.