Characteristic products
The Gabonese diet places great emphasis on hearty foods, starchy foods and cooking in frying baths or sauces. Wood-fired grills, lighter at first glance, are often generously basted with various fats throughout the cooking process.
Busy lifestyles and days that start at dawn are prompting more and more Gabonese to turn to sandwiches as a mid-morning snack or lunch. During your stay, you're bound to come across street stalls selling sturdy snacks at a ridiculously low price, often half a loaf of bread generously filled with meat in sauce: meatball stew, kidneys, meat cutlets or even sausage and peas.
Manioc, yams and plantains can also be served as staples. Rice, although often imported, remains widespread. Vegetables include tomatoes, onions, squash, cabbage, cucumbers and okra, a green chili-like vegetable with a zucchini taste, whose viscous juice is appreciated for thickening sauces. The fruit of the oil palm is prized for its pulp and red oil, which - untreated - is rich in beta-carotene. There are a multitude of leafy vegetables specific to the African continent that can only be found in exotic grocery stores in France. One example is nkumu (in Latin, Gnetum africanum ), whose leaves are rich in proteins, minerals and vitamins. The same is true of cassava leaves.
Another local plant, safou or atanga, resembles a small eggplant. The rich, creamy pulp of this fruit, once cooked, is eaten as is. Safou is one-and-a-half times fatter than avocado and contains many nutrients. The oleaginous pits of theIrvingia gabonensis tree are used to produce odika butter, or indigenous chocolate. They are crushed and slowly cooked until they release their oil. It then solidifies, taking on a brown-gray color and a taste similar to cocoa. Finally, some squashes like the égousi produce seeds called "African pistachio", which are crushed to thicken sauces.
Livestock production is modest in Gabon, and meat is often imported. While beef and pork are very popular, the Gabonese eat a lot of offal, which is less expensive. Chicken, on the other hand, is easy to raise on small plots of land and is widely available. Fish and seafood include tarpon, grouper, snapper, barracuda and captain, as well as freshwater lobster, prawns and shrimp, and giant snails prepared as a stew. Gabon is criss-crossed by numerous rivers, and locals are particularly fond of river fish such as tilapia.
Finally, bushmeat is also found in the country, and has always served as a source of protein. Gabon offers many opportunities to sample such unusual delicacies as crocodile, boa, porcupine and antelope. However, while hunting has long been a means of subsistence, there is growing controversy about poaching, which wealthy Gabonese living in the city are accused of perpetuating, particularly in order to be able to offer these delicacies at weddings or large family celebrations. So it's best to avoid this kind of product or find out about it beforehand, otherwise you run the risk of tasting bushmeat from potentially endangered species.
Gabonese specialties
Often considered Gabon's national dish, nyembwé is a chicken stew simmered in a sauce made from cooked palm nuts, then pounded to a paste. The chicken is sometimes replaced by fish. Although not typically Gabonese, peanut sauce - made with peanut butter - is very popular. Alternatively, koku mu teri is a chicken dish with a sauce thickened with powdered égousi pumpkin seeds, known as "pistachio sauce".
Nkumu is the name of a leaf picked from a wild vine in the forest. Finely chopped, it is simmered with a little onion. But nkumu can also be served with shrimps, smoked fish, smoked sardines or pork chops. Cassava leaves or folong with smoked fish are served with cassava root, rice or boiled plantains. They are sometimes served with peanut sauce, and smoked meat replaces the fish.
Fish and seafood are often grilled. Gabonese-style stuffed crab is more sophisticated. The shells are garnished with crabmeat, chopped shrimp, green onion and chili pepper. More surprisingly, chocolate sauce is made from odika butter, which is grated and caramelized with onions to make a sauce much appreciated with chicken or smoked fish.
Desserts, fruits and drinks
Traditional Gabonese cuisine does not include typical desserts, but French desserts such as flan are well appreciated, and there are good patisseries in the larger towns. However, sweet tooths will be delighted to discover the choice of exotic fruits served for breakfast or dessert - mangoes, passion fruit, citrus fruits, papayas, and especially, in season, pineapples. Don't be fooled by their pale flesh, they're incredibly sweet and juicy.
This abundance of fruit has given rise to a wide variety of fruit juices, while soft drinks remain popular. Beer is widely consumed. A local company, Sobraga, brews many beers under license, but purists will want to try the local Régab. The more adventurous will try palm wine, strong in taste and alcohol, enjoyed as an aperitif or digestive. Grape wines are imported mainly from Europe - notably France - and South Africa.
Almost all grape wines are imported, and very ordinary wines are generally quite expensive. However, some courageous winegrowers have tried their hand at viticulture in Gabon, an equatorial country that is not very conducive to vine cultivation. But their efforts have paid off, and since 2005 they have been producing the rather expensive cru Malymas, made in Assiami, which offers quite respectable wines.
