Beninese food is hearty, flavorful, and built around starches and sauces. If you like bold flavors and are happy eating with your hands, you will eat well here.
The staple across most of the country is pate -- a stiff dough made from corn, cassava, or yam flour, served with a variety of sauces. The most common are sauce d'arachide (peanut sauce, rich and thick), sauce tomate (tomato-based with fish or meat), and sauce gombo (okra sauce, slippery and savory). You tear off a piece of pate, shape it with your fingers, and scoop up the sauce. In the south, akassa -- fermented corn dough wrapped in banana leaves -- replaces pate as the starch of choice, often served with crab or fish sauce.
Fish is central to the cuisine along the coast and around the lakes. Grilled tilapia and captain fish are everywhere in Cotonou and Grand Popo, often served whole with piment (hot pepper sauce) and fried plantains. In Ganvie and other lake communities, smoked fish is a way of life. Street vendors sell brochettes -- grilled skewers of beef, chicken, or fish seasoned with a spicy dry rub that varies from one vendor to the next.
For breakfast, many Beninois eat bouillie -- a warm, sweet porridge made from millet, corn, or rice flour, sometimes flavored with ginger or lemon. You will find it at street stalls in every town, ladled out of huge pots for a few hundred CFA francs.
The national drink is tchoukoutou (also spelled tchouk), a millet beer brewed by women across the north. It is sour, slightly fizzy, and deceptively strong. In the south, sodabi -- a potent palm liquor distilled from palm wine -- is the spirit of choice. La Beninoise is the main commercial beer and perfectly decent. Fresh fruit juices, particularly baobab, ginger (called gnamakoudji), and bissap (hibiscus), are sold cold from roadside stalls and are some of the best drinks you will have in West Africa.
The French influence shows in the availability of baguettes and patisserie in the cities, and most restaurants in Cotonou offer both Beninese and French dishes. Outside the cities, your options narrow to local food -- which is a good thing.