Bozo Specialty · Smoked Fish
Poisson Fumé (Smoked Fish)
📷 Closely related photo — Photo: Edithobayaa1 / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0
Much of the catch landed at Mopti never sells fresh at all: it is smoked or sun-dried on the riverbank so it can survive the trip to markets across Mali and beyond.
Whole fish are smoked for hours over wood fires on racks at Mopti's riverside Marché aux Poissons, turning a deep amber color and picking up a dense, smoky flavor. Vendors sell it whole or flaked apart to be added straight into stews.
Why it's made this way: Mopti sits where the Niger and Bani rivers meet in the Inner Niger Delta, making it the natural hub of Mali's fishing industry, and its smoking racks, tended largely by Bozo women, turn the daily catch into a shelf-stable product traded across the region.
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Part of World of Street Food — 3443 dishes from 118 countries.
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