Ghana Street Food

Ghanaian street food is loud, layered, and built for eating on the move — spiced plantain and smoky rice sold from bowls balanced on vendors' heads.

5 street food dishes from Ghana — what each one is, why it's made that way, and what to expect when you order it.

Signature street foods of Ghana

Ruby Refresher · Spiced Hibiscus Drink Sobolo Nearly every vendor's recipe is different — some load theirs with ginger for heat, others go fruitier with pineapple, so the 'same' drink tastes… Sobolo is a chilled, deep-red drink brewed from dried hibiscus calyces with ginger, cloves, and often pineapple, then sweetened and served ice-cold. It's sold from coolers by street… Night Snack · Spiced Plantain Kelewele It's basically fried candy disguised as a savory snack — sweet ripe plantain lit up with chili and ginger. Ripe plantain cut into chunks, tossed in a paste of ginger, chili pepper, and spices like nutmeg or cloves, then deep-fried until dark and caramelized at the edges. Classically sold at… Breakfast Staple · Rice & Beans Waakye That deep red-brown color everyone associates with waakye comes from dried leaves, not a spice blend. Rice and black-eyed peas cooked together with dried sorghum leaf sheaths and a little limestone, which turns the whole pot a deep reddish-brown. Roadside vendors dish it up, then let… Grilled · Spiced Skewers Chichinga The fiery orange dust coating these skewers is mostly ground peanuts, not just chili. Chichinga is Ghana's take on the West African skewered-meat tradition: thin strips of beef, chicken, or offal grilled over charcoal and rolled in a dry spice mix called suya spice (yaji)… Street Snack · Fried Dough Balls Bofrot Ghanaians and Nigerians argue over the name, but bofrot and puff-puff are the exact same fried dough ball under two different names. A soft, sweetened yeast dough spiced with nutmeg is scooped by hand straight into hot oil, where it puffs into golden, craggy-surfaced balls with a fluffy interior. Vendors fry it in big…

More street food in Africa

• Morocco
• Nigeria
• Egypt
• South Africa
• Ethiopia
• Kenya
• Senegal
• Tunisia
• Algeria
• Tanzania
• Uganda
• Zimbabwe
• Cameroon
• Ivory Coast
• Mali
• Rwanda
• Zambia
• Mozambique
• Sudan
• Libya
• DR Congo
• Somalia
• Madagascar
• Botswana
• Namibia