Lagoon Breakfast · Ébrié Style
Akpessi
Photo: Leturk / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0
Akpessi is traditionally topped with crumbled dried or smoked herring rather than fresh fish, a preservation trick lagoon traders relied on long before refrigeration reached Abidjan's markets.
Mashed plantain or yam is worked with red palm oil, chili and crumbled dried herring into a rustic, hearty porridge-stew. It's sold hot from covered pots at breakfast stalls around Abidjan's lagoon markets, scooped up by hand or with a spoon.
Why it's made this way: The dish belongs to the culinary repertoire of Abidjan's original lagoon inhabitants — the Ébrié and neighboring Akan groups — for whom smoked fish and palm oil were pantry staples long before the city grew up around them.
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