I recently went to my homeland, The Democratic Republic of Congo. I was so excited to reconnect with my culture, traditions and food. Below are some of the examples of typical Congolese food. I ate so much! It was so delightful! I'm looking forward to trying out some of these dishes here and putting my own spin on them.

This was my first lunch on the day of arrival. I had fried plantaine bananas, pork stew, chicken in peanut sauce and the greens are pondu. Pondu is kassava leaves that have been mashed up in a huge pestle and mortar, and boiled with palm oil, peanut butter & smoked fish.

Smoked chicken is another common dish in the Congo. Congolese people started smoking their chicken and fish ages ago as a way to preserve it. Here my aunt cut up some chicken and fried it up with some onion and green pepper. Simple & tasty!

Fried plantaine bananas are the best thing ever! This time I had it with pondu, chicken in mushroom sauce and little baby fish cooked with egg & herbs.

Chikwang is basically processed kassava roots or manioc.  It's one of the common ways to preserve the manioc after harvest. It's delicious with pondu! 

Lituma is mashed plantaine bananas. This is one of the many ways you can prepare plantaine bananas. I had this with delicious grilled goat, chili and pondu.

More fried plantaine bananas! Yum yum yum!

A typical selection of congolese accompaniments. From the bottom centre: pondu, biteku-teku, mashed beans, smoked fish, samp, and goat. 

Lituma with baked catfish and biteku-teku. Biteku-teku is actually pumpkin leaves. They are boiled until completely wilted and a little oil and salt is added before serving.

Another common way to preserve fish is to salt it heavily and then dry it. When it is time to cook the fish, you soak it in some water for a few hours to remove the excess salt. This was prepared with baby aubergine and green pepper.

Goat is one of the most common meats eaten in the Congo. Above: goat ribs grilled and then cooked again with onion, spring onion, celery and garlic. This was ridiculously tasty!