Yaa Asantewaa at the table

The Asante meal is not conceived as starter-main-dessert but around an inseparable pair: a neutral starchy mass that is kneaded and swallowed in balls without chewing (fufu of yam and plantain, pounded in a giant mortar), and a powerful soup (nkwan) in which it is dipped. Around it revolve prestige drinks (palm wine), grilled street snacks from Kumasi markets, and dry travel provisions. At the court of Ejisu, the richness of the soup—game, poultry, red oil, peanuts—marked one's rank.

Two souls of Asante cuisine: red palm oil, extracted from the fruit of the oil palm, which tints soups a deep orange and perfumes them with a smoky roundness; and ground peanuts into paste, base of the great festive soup. Together they speak of the forested land of the Gold Coast and the table of a queen mother.