Liberian food is straightforward and satisfying — built around rice, cassava, palm oil, fish, and greens, with some distinctly American-influenced dishes thrown in from the Americo-Liberian tradition.
Rice is the staple. A meal without it barely counts as a meal. It comes with stews, soups, and sauces. The most common accompaniments are cassava leaf stew (cassava leaves pounded and cooked with meat, palm oil, and hot pepper) and palm butter soup (made from palm fruit, rich and intensely savory). Both are excellent.
Dumboy is the national dish — cassava pounded in a mortar until it becomes a smooth, dense dough, served with soup or stew. It's heavy, starchy, and filling. The equivalent of fufu in neighboring countries, and like fufu it's eaten by hand.
Peanut soup — a warm, earthy broth made with peanuts, meat, and hot pepper — is widely available and popular. Jollof rice turns up often, cooked with tomato and spices and usually served with chicken.
On the coast and at market stalls, grilled and fried fish are everywhere and at their best when fresh. Street vendors sell kala (fried dough) and roasted corn. The pepper sauce in Liberia is genuinely fierce — be warned and be enthusiastic.
In Monrovia, restaurants range from local chophouses serving daily stews by the plate to a small number of international options (Lebanese food is a fixture in West African capitals and Monrovia is no exception). Outside the capital, you eat what's available — typically rice with whatever stew has been made that day.
Vegetarians will find it harder going, as most local dishes are cooked with meat or fish. Rice, plantain, and avocado are reliable fallbacks.