Gambian

The Gambia is the small West African coastal country that hugs the lower Gambia River — a thin sliver of land that is essentially the river plus its banks, surrounded by Senegal on three sides. The cuisine is therefore the Senegambian kitchen at its most river-fed and most fish-centered. The signature is Benachin — the Wolof one-pot of parboiled rice cooked with fish or meat in a tomato-onion-ginger base with cabbage, carrot, sweet potato, and scotch bonnet; the name means 'one pot' in Wolof and is the direct ancestor of the Senegalese Thieboudienne and arguably of all West African jollof. Domoda is the peanut stew (palm-and-peanut richness with sweet potato), the everyday Mandinka comfort. Superkanja is the okra stew, palm-oil-glossy and thick with smoked fish. Fish Yassa is the Senegambian fish version of the onion-lemon yassa. Caldou — fresh poached fish in a bright tomato-parsley-lemon broth — is the lighter Sunday alternative. Chura Gerteh, the millet-and-peanut breakfast porridge, is the Mandinka naming-ceremony tradition.