Africa > Mali > Food
Malian food is simple, filling, and centres on a few staples that recur across the country. Expect millet, sorghum, rice, and corn prepared in various ways, accompanied by sauces that range from mild to very spicy.
Tô is the national dish: a thick, stiff porridge made from millet or sorghum flour, eaten with a sauce of baobab leaves, peanut, or okra. It is filling and cheap. You scoop up the tô with your fingers and dip it in the sauce. In the south you will find rice instead of tô in many households.
Poulet yassa is not uniquely Malian — it is a Senegalese dish that has spread across West Africa — but it is everywhere in Bamako and serves as the default dish for visitors. Chicken marinated in lemon and onion, then grilled and served over rice. It is reliably good.
Maafe (peanut stew) is one of West Africa's great dishes: a rich, thick sauce made with ground peanuts, tomatoes, and vegetables or meat, served over rice. Malian versions tend to be generous and deeply flavoured.
Capitaine (Nile perch) and other freshwater fish from the Niger are a staple in river towns. In Mopti you can eat grilled capitaine straight off the boat, which is hard to beat.
Brochettes (meat skewers) are sold by street vendors everywhere: grilled lamb, goat, or beef over charcoal, served with sliced onion and hot pepper sauce. Eat them fresh and hot.
For breakfast, look for bouillie — a thin millet porridge sweetened with sugar and sometimes flavoured with baobab fruit or tamarind — or bread with butter and strong Nescafé.
Street food is generally safe if it is freshly cooked and hot. Avoid salads and unpeeled fruit from vendors unless you have a very robust stomach. Drink bottled water.
In Bamako, the range of restaurants extends to Lebanese, French, and pan-African cuisines. Outside the capital, your choices narrow quickly: a simple restaurant (often a woman cooking in a courtyard) serving the dish of the day, which is whatever she has made, served on a bench at a plastic table.