kenkey

Kenkey (also spelled kenke) comes from the Ga language of the Greater Accra region of Ghana. It is made by fermenting corn dough for two to three days, then dividing the dough in half: one half is cooked into a paste (the aflata), which is mixed back into the raw fermented dough, then shaped into balls, wrapped in corn husks or banana leaves, and steamed for several hours. The double processing — fermentation plus cooking plus steaming — produces a dense, sour, slightly acidic food with a distinctive smell.

Kenkey is Ga, but similar fermented corn preparations exist across West Africa: banku (also Ghanaian, but stirred rather than steamed), ogi (Nigerian fermented corn porridge), and dokono (Jamaican, brought by enslaved West Africans). The technique of fermenting corn is pan-West African, but the specific steaming-in-husks method is Ga. The Ga people, concentrated around Accra, are the acknowledged masters of kenkey.

The food is eaten with fried fish, shito (a spicy black pepper sauce), and fresh pepper and tomato. The combination — sour kenkey, spicy shito, fried fish — is one of the canonical Ghanaian meals. Street vendors sell kenkey from large metal basins, unwrapping the corn husks to order. The wrapped bundles keep for several days without refrigeration, making kenkey an ideal street food in tropical heat.

Kenkey has a strong smell that divides people sharply. Ghanaians raised on it find the smell appetizing. People encountering it for the first time often find it overwhelming. This is not unusual — many of the world's great staple foods (kimchi, natto, blue cheese, surströmming) have fermented smells that are beloved by those who grew up with them and challenging for those who did not. Kenkey is an acquired taste, and acquiring it takes a Ghanaian childhood.