If your steps ever lead you to Ivory Coast someday, you may ask yourself this terrific question that sounds like a dilemma: are you going to accompany your okra sauce with placali, rice or foutou? Like Hamlet could have said: foutou or not foutou?
The Ivorian food is not only about alloco and attiéké, some traditional dishes that tend to be spread and shared beyond African boundaries. The multiplicity of the sauces you can taste in Ivory Coast is allowing every single gourmet to find one’s happiness: groundnut sauce, djoumgblé sauce (or dry okra), okra sauce, kopè sauce , “graine” sauce, eggplant sauce…
You can make your choice between a lot of flavors depending on the vegetables you appreciate. Traditional sauces in Ivory Coast are generally always coming with some meat and/or fish. Crabs and snails can also participate to the party for a very rich sauce that will fill up your plate to the brim.
Then comes the inevitable question: do you prefer rice, foutou or placali to eat your sauce? If placali normally comes with a kopè sauce, nothing prevents you from eating it with another sauce. Your foutou can be made of potato, plantain or manioc, and it is better to eat it with your fingers. Again, this is the way to eat it, but you can have it as you wish. Just feel comfortable eating your dish, no matter what kind of cutlery is helping you to reach your goal.
One last tip: if you do not manage to make up your mind, you can still have foutou in the beginning. Once your foutou is finished, you will obviously get some sauce left. What about adding up a little bit of rice to finish properly? This is a perfect way to enjoy your dish until the very end!