Rainy-Season Fruit · Grilled or Boiled
Nsafu / Safou (Grilled African Plum)
Photo: Cartoffel / Wikimedia Commons · CC0
Its English nicknames, African pear and butterfruit, come from the buttery, oily flesh, which is fatty enough to be pressed for oil; it's softened by heat because it's hard when raw.
The oily, purple-skinned fruit of the safou tree is grilled under hot coals or briefly boiled until the flesh softens, then split open and eaten by hand, often alongside roasted corn, from seasonal vendors around Mbandaka's markets.
Why it's made this way: Safou trees grow widely across Équateur's forests, and the fruit's short rainy-season window each year turns its arrival at market stalls into an anticipated, calendar-marking event for local street vendors.
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Part of World of Street Food — 3443 dishes from 118 countries.
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Photo credits.