Senegalese food is some of the best in West Africa, and the national dish — thiéboudienne — is legitimately one of the great dishes of the continent. It deserves a bit of ceremony: slow-cooked fish (often grouper or sea bream) on top of rice that has been cooked in a rich tomato-based stock with parsley, garlic, and the fermented dried fish paste called guedj, surrounded by vegetables (cassava, sweet potato, carrot, aubergine, stuffed with rof herb paste). Eaten from a shared bowl at midday, it is one of the rituals of Senegalese life.
Yassa is the other essential: chicken or fish marinated in lemon juice and mustard, then cooked with deeply caramelised onions. Simple and exactly right. Mafé is a rich peanut-based stew, usually with beef or lamb; it is heavier and more warming, the kind of thing you want on a cool evening.
Street food worth seeking out includes dibi (grilled meat, usually lamb, eaten at a rough-hewn wooden table with onion and mustard sauce), thiakry (millet couscous with sweetened yoghurt and coconut), and accra (black-eyed pea fritters). Baguettes are everywhere and the bread is genuinely good — a legacy that the French actually deserve credit for.
The shared meal is the norm in Senegalese homes. If you are invited to eat with a family, the food will come in a communal bowl and everyone eats with their right hand (or a spoon if you are a guest). Accept, eat, and don't be in a hurry.
Attaya — the Senegalese tea ceremony — deserves its own mention. Three rounds of heavily sweetened Chinese green tea, each smaller and stronger than the last, poured from cup to cup to create froth. It is a social ritual that can last an hour. Being included in an attaya session is more of an invitation than the tea itself.
In Dakar, the restaurant scene is diverse, with strong French, Lebanese, and Vietnamese presences alongside Senegalese cooking. Outside the capital, options narrow quickly and the best eating is often in guesthouses that cook for their guests.