In terms of catering, the possibilities are numerous, both in terms of the quality of the food and the category and price of the restaurants. You can find comfortable air-conditioned restaurants offering international cuisine; characteristic local restaurants serving only typical Beninese dishes; French, Togolese, Ivorian, Vietnamese, Chinese, Lebanese, Moroccan, Indian restaurants and even pizzerias, although the pizza they serve is not similar to the Italian pizza. You can eat for very few CFA francs along the roadsides or in the maquis and bouvette (open-air bar-restaurants with a very cheerful atmosphere), where women are constantly frying or roasting food to be eaten on the spot, sitting on very simple chairs and tables, to the rhythm of loud local music.
In rural villages, meals are served in community campsites or at women’s associations, but only by advance booking. The cuisine is strictly Beninese, genuine and tasty, prepared express.
In general, the Beninese diet is based mainly on rice, yam and cassava, fish and meat (cow, chicken, guinea fowl, rabbit and agouti, a rodent). Millet, maize and fonio are prepared as couscous and polenta in the north of the country, while yam and cassava are mashed into a thick mash (fufù) and accompanied by sauces made from meat, fish, spiced vegetables or okra, a green, sticky sauce made from the pods of the okra. Potatoes, whether sweet or not, and bananas are fried as a side dish for meat or fish.
On the coast, it will not be difficult to find excellent shellfish, including lobster.
Vegetables are cooked mainly as an ingredient in accompanying sauces and raw salad is served in rich combinations with cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, lots of raw onion and dressed with a vinaigrette sauce. Local fruit consists mainly of pineapple, bananas and papaya, all of a very sweet quality.
International drinks such as coca cola, fanta and sprite are widespread. The national beer is Beninoise, which is very good and light, while the craft beer is made from sorghum or maize, a highly fermented drink characteristic of some rural areas in the north (tchakpalo and tchoukoutou) where it is sold loose and enjoyed in calebasse (pumpkin shells). Another traditional alcoholic beverage is palm wine, extracted from the trunk of a variety of palm tree and fermented. A very strong liqueur similar to our grappa (sodabi) is also distilled from the palm tree. Lemongrass and baobab juice are other popular drinks based on lemongrass and the pulp of ‘monkey bread‘ (the fruit of the baobab tree) and also have therapeutic properties. Lipton tea and nescafe are served at breakfast with powdered milk and accompanied by bread and jam or local honey.