Some people think that food in Africa is dull, only including fruits, cereal grains, vegetables, milk and meat products, or scary such as worms and insects. This is not totally true. People can still find chain stores like Mc Donalds and KFC in many countries in Africa. In fact, you can find a great diversity of exotic cuisines in different parts of Africa. Different regions have their own local culinary traditions in terms of choice of ingredients, style of preparation and cooking techniques.

In Central Africa, plantains (picture a) and cassava (picture b) are always the basic ingredients. Fufu-like starchy foods (usually made from fermented cassava roots) are served with grilled meat and sauces. One common dish is spinach stew cooked with tomato, peppers, chillis, onions, and peanut butter.

In North Africa, main ingredients are potatoes, tomatoes, zucchini and chili peppers. In their culinary culture, people like to use a varitey of spices, like saffron, nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger and cloves, which were introduced by the Arabs in the 7th century.

For the cooking of Southern Africa, it is sometimes called “rainbow cuisine”, as the food in this region is a mixture of many cultures: indigenous African tribal societies, European, and Asian. The indigenous people of Southern Africa are roughly divided into two groups: the largest group - the Bantu-speakers and the smaller group - the Khoisan. The Bantu-speakers eat dishes of grain, meat, milk and vegetables, as well as fermented grain and fermented milk products, while the Khoisan eat meat, milk, hunted wild animals and vegetables.

West African meal is usually made with starchy items and contains meat, fish, various spices and herbs. A wide array of staples are eaten across the region, including fufu (picture c), garri (picture d), kenkey (picture e) (originating from Ghana), foutou (picture f), and couscous (picture g), which are served alongside soups and stews.

Here are some examples of appealing African dishes. The picture above (left) is the soft, chewy Banana Puff Puff, a common snack from West African. The picture next to it (middle) is Doro Wat, spicy chicken stew and eggs, which is a dish from Ethiopia. And the last picture (right) is Bhajias, East African snack especially in Kenya and Tanzania, a cultural import from the Indians dipped in a thick gram flour paste of spices ,herbs and fried until crispy. They all look yummy, don't they?