akassa — Ivory Coast

Akassa is a smooth, faintly tangy paste made from fermented and cooked corn, part of a broader family of fermented maize staples found from Nigeria to Ivory Coast under related names. In the south of Ivory Coast it is a familiar street food, sold in small leaf-wrapped portions by market vendors. It is reported mainly from Abidjan and the lagoon towns of the south-east, close to the border areas where the same corn paste is prepared under the same name in neighbouring countries; here it is closely tied to street-side grill stalls rather than to home kitchens. Dried corn is soaked until it turns slightly sour, then ground fine and sieved with water to separate the starch from the bran. The strained liquid settles, the clear water is poured off, and the thick starch is cooked over low heat, stirring, until it forms a smooth, springy dough. Portions are wrapped hot in leaves and left to cool and firm before selling. Along the lagoon coast, akassa is typically eaten alongside grilled or fried fish and a hot pepper-and-tomato sauce known locally as "sauce piment", sometimes finished with a spoonful of red palm oil; a few vendors instead offer it with a thick palm-nut sauce, giving the same corn paste a richer, oilier pairing than the versions found further north.