Market Fry-Up · Whole Salted Fish
Kyenam (Fante Fried Fish)
Photo: Adjeiwaa.ella / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0
Vendors sometimes deliberately fry kyenam until it's hard and dry rather than tender, because the extra cooking acts as a form of preservation that lets it keep for days without refrigeration.
Whole fish — often red snapper, mackerel, or croaker — is salted and deep-fried until the skin turns deep golden and crisp, then sold with ground chili pepper, shito, and sliced onion.
Why it's made this way: Frying fish hard in oil has long been a way for Ghana's coastal communities to make the day's catch last, and kyenam remains the classic partner to kenkey up and down the coast.
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