Gabon

Gabon’s food is built around palm-nut nyembwe sauces, smoky odika stews, cassava sticks and forest fruits like atanga. Look for Nyembwe chicken (chicken stewed in palm-nut cream, often with smoked flavors; national dish), Odika sauce (meat or fish stewed with smoky wild-mango-kernel bush chocolate) and Cassava sticks (dense fermented cassava sticks steamed in leaves). Gabon’s national dish, chicken simmered in pulp pressed from oil palm fruit; nyembwe is the Myene word for that palm sauce. This atlas has 24 Gabon dishes catalogued below, from everyday cooking to food kept for festivals and special occasions.