Northern GHANA FOOD in Accra!! Tuo Zaafi, Wagashi & Kuli Kuli | Accra, Ghana

I'm going to mix it. Yeah, I'm going to... You want me to say that? Yeah, exactly. That's what I wanted to do as well. Oh, yeah. Oh. Mmm. Hi, everyone. I hope you're all doing well. This is David Hoffman from David's Been Here coming at you from beautiful Accra, Ghana. Today, I'm going to show you what northern Ghanian food is all about. If you guys haven't been to Accra, Ghana, you should definitely check it out. For those of you guys that don't know, the country is made up of a few different regions, the south, central, and north. In the north, they do different food. I was in Tamale for like half a day. Unfortunately for me, I didn't get to dive deep into their cuisine. But here at this restaurant, Northern Platter Restaurant, we're going to see how a few different dishes are made. We're going to try it. And I'm doing all this with my friend Lotte from Ghana Food Movement. Let's go inside. Let's meet the team. And let's eat. Lotte. Yeah? I love this place. Look at this. Open air, second floor restaurant. The first dish he's making for us is called Gable. Gable? Am I right? It's Gable. Yeah, it's Gable. So it is bean flour, black-eyed bean flour, mixed with some water, a secret ingredient, and some salt. And they're going to boil it. The other version you have of this is Toubani. And that's actually the same ingredients, but then they steam it. Very typical dish for the northern regions in Ghana. Once he's done mixing the dough with the waters, then he boils it. Throws it in, you know, softly. Each one slowly. But then he has to move them because they get stuck to the bottom. Right? Yeah. And then they pop up. And then you let them cook. It's like a longer process than frying. Because this is beans. Bean flour takes longer to cook. So you leave it longer. I like this. So we're going to eat on one of these? I guess. I hope so. It's almost like a banana leaf, right? No, I know. I'm joking. But like in India, you know, everything's banana leaf. Right here, they're making the starter, which is corn porridge. She's added corn flour, mixed in water, boiled it, and that's it. And here they're frying Wagashi, which is cheese? Cheese, yeah. It is a local cheese, freshly made. Kind of like halloumi. We fry it, it's so good. And it's made by the Pulani, which is a nomadic tribe up in the north of Ghana. I mean, it looks delicious. This is like, we have it in Latin American culture, fried cheese, thick, white. Exactly, it caramelizes a little bit, so it's a bit sweet and crunchy. Crispy too. It's going to be good. Can't wait. Okay, guys, we just watched the entire process of this beautiful meal. Wow, I cannot wait to dig in. This looks beautiful. So many different colors, textures as well. And this, what do we have here? I'm just so excited that you finally get to try some of the northern food as well. Because you've been in Tamale, but you didn't have the time to really try the food. Exactly. So we're here at Northern Platter, and we're going to try some really amazing traditional northern food. Tiset, Tuozafi, is the starch dish of the north. Okay. It's made with millet originally. Luckily, today it's made with millet as well. And we're having it with Ayoyo leaves soup. And Ayoyo leaves are hibiscus leaves. They're quite tangy. Sorry. That's the green stuff, yeah. The slimy stuff. It's slimy because it's leaves, so it usually ends up to be slimy. And then the other is a vegetable soup with a bit of fish in there. Great. Yeah. So we're going to dig in. Use our hands. We washed them. We should be good. Let's go. All right. Oh, yeah. Right away, it feels different. Oh, man. So it's almost like a cream spinach. Yeah. Similar. I like the density of this starch. The density is good, right? It's chewy but not too thick, not too slimy. The soup is really good because it's light. So light. You know, in Ghana, flavors are quite heavy and intense. So having this green light soup is nice. And so this is something you push in the Ghana food movement? Yeah. Stuff like this? Yeah, definitely. Because we're really seeing that dishes like Tuwazafi made with millet. Or the next dish that we're going to have, Gobelin. This is fantastic. I love the fish, by the way. It's good, huh? Not so many bones. And the fish, the sauce has that red palm oil, right? Yeah, of course. Always. Of course. It's also... I know. Yummy fish. Oh, my God. Spray it off slowly. The sauce is so well balanced. And also the eye for detail how they present these dishes here. I love the bowls too. It's not just slopped on there. It's really... What a dish. I wish I would have eaten this with tamale. This is... Hey, my friend, fantastic. Oh, the sauce. The sauce. Have you mixed already? Oh, you're mixing. I'm mixing. Okay, I'm going now. I'm going all in. I'm going mixing now. This is one of my favorite things about eating Ghana. Using your hands. The mixing is good. Good flavors, nice balance you said. Oh, man. Oh, yeah. It's funny because people would not expect to eat soups with your hands. But they do all day here. Yeah, true. You know, the Ghanaian diet is still a traditional agrarian diet. So they have the soups on the fire all day long. They have their starches ferment. And then at the end of the day, when you come from the field, you'll eat it. Lotte, what do we have next? All right, let me present to you Gablé. Gablé. Gablé is made out of bean flour. Okay. Which they mix with salt, water and a secret ingredient. And then they boil it. So it becomes like these... More like a dumpling. Exactly, thank you. That's the word I was looking for. Dumpling. Then we're having it with Wagashi. The best. Which is the fried cheese made by the Fulani, the nomadic people in the north of Ghana. And then there's some fried onions on top. And then we have three dipping powders. So there's the chili. We have the Suya spice, which is the local spice. And then we have Kuli Kuli. And Kuli Kuli is like fried peanuts. And then they make them into a flour again. This is very typical for the north as well. Okay. So how do you dive in? I think we're just gonna get one. Okay, so just one. And then you're just dumping it, I guess, a little bit. Okay. Because we like everything. So let me see. Definitely get an onion in there. Maybe two. Or three. Yeah. All right. Mmm. Oh. And then we didn't even have it with the Wagashi yet. It's so good. Mmm. Black-eyed beans. Yeah. So if you ever had a dumpling, obviously, when you bite in, you have something else inside. This is like the whole thing is the same. You know? Very nice. So it's a little chewy, but because you have all these other flavors coming in, it's the ultimate savory bite. Yeah, I mean, super savory. Love this. The crunch. Oh. It's the whole aroma of the onions. Yeah, I'm sorry. I tried this one. So I dip this as well. But also the coulis-coulis. Like the peanut flour. It's so good. Mmm. Absolute grown-ups. Oh, yeah? Oh, yeah. It's crazy good. I'm going to dip this into everything. Is that what you're supposed to do? I don't know. Get a few things here. Oh, it's really good. Who's part of the Ghana food movement? Oh, yeah. I am, obviously. You are now, especially. The Ghana food movement. The Ghana food movement is a group of stakeholders throughout the food chain. So we are chefs. We are bloggers. We are writers. We are nutritionists. We are farmers. We are food engineers. People who play a role in getting food from farm to table. And this is absolutely diverse. It's unique. Everything comes from the farm. Wow. It's raw ingredients. It's fun to eat. Yeah, super fun. I mean, I can eat this whole thing myself. This is like an appetizer for me. Mmm. So good. So should I dip this in here? Why not? Yeah, you should do it. Mmm. I'm going to mix it. Yeah, I'm going to... You want me to say that? Yeah, exactly. That's what I wanted to do as well. Oh, yeah. Oh. Mmm. What a plate. Mmm. It really is amazing. It's my first time trying cheese in this country, by the way. First time. It's also because they're not big on dairy. They're not big. So this is the only thing. I'm so surprised. Everything else is coming in as well. This is the only indigenous local dairy they have. Everything else is flown in. But that's surprising to me because you go someplace like Albania, the whole thing is all about dairy. Mmm. Yogurt, milk, cheese all day long. Everything is... Probably because they can have a lot of cows there and the climate here is not really good for cows. Oh, okay. Okay. So there's very little... Well, it's weird because there's so many cows. There are cows. There is. And they are herded by the Fulani and they make the cheese. But it's not a perfect country for dairy or cows. Okay. Enjoy. So guys, we're not done yet. We have a surprise. We're taking you to have some Ghanaian wine made from cashew and from cocoa. This is not from grapes. I'm so excited. I'm excited too. I'm thirsty. I'm thirsty myself. You gonna finish this? No, you do it. I'll finish it. This place is awesome. I'm gonna take my friends here. What? Yeah, just... Massage it in. Last bite, guys. Mmm. It's time to try some Ghanaian wine. Excited. This is unique. It's different. Made from cacao, made from cashews. Oh, I can't wait. Love this place. Ghana. My last day. I've been here two weeks. You've changed my life. Alright, so we're gonna close this adventure off with a little wine. But this wine is not made from grapes, but made from cashew and cocoa. So there are two different wines, and we're gonna taste them at Sai Wine Cafe. And this is it. Sai Wine Cafe. Open seven days a week. Make a reservation. Okay, so we're here at Sai, and look at this. We have a cashew wine, a cocoa white wine. So these are two white wines. They also have a red wine. Unfortunately for us, they're sold out. But I'm excited. They come from the Volta region. Yes, this is also where they grow the cocoa and the cashew in the coffee. So we're gonna try this. And this is super unique for Ghana. They're not using grapes, but local ingredients. And we're gonna have these wines. And I guess this is the first Ghanaian wine. Yes, which is super exciting. Cheers. Here goes. First time cashew wine. First time. Oh, that smells good. Mmm. I didn't expect that. You know, it's wine, but at the same time, it's so different. It's so different. It has more of an earthiness to it. Very much, yeah. So it's not sweet. It's more dry, right? You know, it has curry leaves. Is that what it is? I'm getting curry leaves as a flavor. Yes, it is. It's curry leaves. What is that? Curry leaves. Curry leaves? Yes, I'm fully getting curry leaves. Which one is that? The cashew. Did you guys do the three-taste, three-step where you smell first and then taste? Yeah. Smelled. I didn't hear you talk about it. Well, we don't go too deep into that. We're not pros here. I'm not a sommelier. Okay, okay. We do. You're curious about this one, right? I am. Coco. Round two. Chocolate wine. Whoa. I know that smell. This is, I'm definitely getting cocoa. It smells like fermentation. That's what it smells like. Yeah. Oh, wow. That's different. You know, smelling it, it felt like a little bit of cider. Oh. Just smelling it. But this is definitely not cider. This is definitely, we discussed wines from Georgia, right? A little bit more stable, farmy. Yeah. This is definitely. So more of like a farmy wine. This one has that too, yeah. They're both very earthy. Yeah, but I think the cashew one is really refined. If you could push it into a corner, that would be Europe. Okay. And then this would be. Georgia. This would be like vin natural. Yeah, caucus area. But only because you want to compare it, but you don't have to compare it. You know, it's just, it's very unique. That smell though. Yeah. It's good. You know what the cool thing about these wines is? It's really about taking this local ingredients, which are not per se consumed a lot for the local market. And just adding local value, making something completely new out of it. It's really interesting. All right, guys, we did it. We had Northern Ghanaian food. So good. Oh man. That was epic. It was. It was one of my favorite meals. We're going back tomorrow. Yeah? You're not. I'm out of here. I'm going on a flight soon. But yeah, so the name of the restaurant is Northern. Platter. Platter Restaurant. Yes. They serve everything from the North. Again, many different areas here in Ghana. That's the Northern area. Many different cuisines. Cuisines that we are losing. Exactly. Very important. Lots of millet, right? Lots of millet. Millet. And then after that, we came here to Saya. Sai. Sai Wine Cafe. Right there. Sai Wine Cafe. They make cashew and cocoa wine. And we're having some technical difficulties here, but it's okay. We need to shout. It was good. My favorite was the cashew. Mine too. Definitely. It's different. Definitely. The other one's a little more fermented taste. Yeah. Not my favorite thing. Farmy wine. I don't know. Yeah. It's almost like a saison. Like a farmhouse ale. Yes. Like that Belgian style beer. Exactly. Yeah. So you have it in beer too. Yeah. Definitely. Well guys, I hope you love this video. If you did, give me a thumbs up. Leave me a comment below. Subscribe to my channel for more awesome travel content. We'll see you in the next travel food adventure. I don't know where. London maybe. Let's go. Okay.