Hausa cooking is built on grains: millet, sorghum, maize and rice. Many meals are a soft, pounded “swallow” (tuwo) eaten with a soup, and street food is a way of life in cities such as Kano and Zaria.
Tuwo
A soft swallow made from rice, maize or sorghum, eaten with soup.
Miyan kuka
A soup made with ground baobab leaves, often eaten with tuwo.
Fura da nono
Millet balls in a bowl of soured milk, a classic meal and drink across the Sahel.
Masa
Fried cakes of fermented rice batter, often eaten in the morning.
Suya
Thinly sliced meat on a skewer, coated in a spiced peanut rub and grilled over fire.
Kilishi
Dried, spiced and grilled meat, a traditional snack and travelling food (see the chapter on Trade).
Kosai
Fried bean cakes, a breakfast and street-food favourite.
Goro (kola nut)
Shared as a sign of welcome and respect, and long a major item of the long-distance trade.
Recipes change from household to household. If you cook one, you are cooking history: the ground peanuts in a suya rub are a reminder of how groundnuts became a major crop in northern Nigeria (see the chapter on Trade).