Hey everyone, hope you're having an amazing day! It's Mark Wiens I'm in Cote D'ivoire West Africa Today we are not far from Yamasukro, which is actually the political capital of Cote D'ivoire We've driven over 1800 kilometers across the country to eat the most unique and unseen Ivorian. Foods We started with street food in Abhijan, ate Seafood along the Atlantic coast, saw the mysterious stilt dances in Tuba and visited the remote Northwest where the entire Village showed up to cook a guinea fowl. today. we're in the countryside just outside of Yamasuko to eat a wild West African delicacy and it's as fresh as you can get.

Thank you! Oh wonderful! What a beautiful day! And actually before we get to the Wilderness to the Jungle we're stopping off in this town which is A. It's a small town but it's a bustling town. It's called Tumori and we're oh I Can smell some smoked fish in the air, but this is a very colorful place. These are like a bunch of restaurants that serve yes, all sorts of different local dishes.

Oh man, you can see the meat floating around in there. Oh that smells so good cooking over the fire boiling, simmering with the smoked meat on the inside. Oh what a dish that's pounded. Yeah, yeah, when they boil it and then they pound it, that's what they pounded, right? Okay, okay, and so is that is that futu? or Fufu This is it's futu.

Okay, made with this yam. this is. uh, it's like small aubergine. Okay, actually.

Oh, they're like like baby eggplants. like pea eggplants, right? Yeah, Oh, Yeah, that's okay and we have some agility so that's added and then also okra. Yeah, plants? Yeah. and um.

eggplants. Oh man. so what's in there is? Oh okay. Okay, so that meat is the grass cutter.

Yeah, oh yeah. where's the hood? Oh there we go. That's the guy. Oh man.

they're the soups. just smell so good. All the onions, the tomatoes, the chilies and the wild. Smoked Meats Uh, one of the favorite Meats is the aguti which is also called grass cutter.

It's a huge rodent which we're definitely going to be eating today. Uh, but that's that's one of the prized Meats in this area and that just looks so good. These restaurants known for local meats or bush Meats They are these restaurants. There's like Hamza around for bush meat, local meat and all.

They have two main Meats of the day. this one is the aguti which is like a giant rodent but then another one they have is a beach which is a wild deer. So I think we're gonna try some of the the wild deer while we're here. I Thought that's enough and you put that right into the sauce with the meat into the soup.

All right, thank you Jermaine And Duran is going to show us how to eat it. It's the deer right? Yeah, this is the wild deer and then it's been smoked and then yeah into this stew. You have to take it like this. All right.

So maybe we go together. Take a piece of the this one is futu. or Fufu that's futu futu. Okay, so dip that into the sauce.

Yeah, into the soup. Okay, sorry. Oh, it's so good. Oh, it has an amazing smokey chili flavor to it.

Actually nicely. yes. and I think this one is with the dried okra as well. Smoky It definitely has a little bit of a gamey taste to it from the the meat being boiled into it.

The wild meat. Okay, we gotta try that meat we can pair into it. Oh, it's tender. It is.

Wow I Thought it was going to be tough, but it's actually extremely tender I lost it and then re-dip in that juice. Oh wow, is that cool. It's like unbelievably gender I Was expecting it to be tough and really chewy, but it's incredibly tender and medium. Very lean.

I Mean there's not not a lot of fat for sure. Yeah from the Boost Yeah, it's straight from the bush. Oh, that's delicious and that combination outstanding. Take the photo, take some of the meat, and then try to kind of like scoop in with that that soup.

Scoop the soup. That's how you do it. and you need that soup to just keep the food too hydrated. Yeah, but the futu is incredible.

It's such a smooth texture. Um, it's very neutral tasting so it just picks up the flavor of The sauce. And the the wild meat. Yeah and then it kind of just has like that kind of slightly, um, sticky, slightly elasticy texture to it.

It's delicious. What a meal! Now look at it. Oh that's amazing. So much flavor.

Oh man, that was an extremely tasty appetizer that was just so much flavor. I Love this place! sitting under the tree and there's like probably over a dozen little restaurants here where you can get the Fresh Catch of the Day all stewed up into big soups. And to eat with futu? Delicious. So much flavor.

What an experience! Great people from here. We are heading into the forest. Oh nice. getting off the main road onto some small dirt tracks.

Really getting off the beaten path here into the bush, you make your way through the bush and then you come to this clearing. It's kind of like a jungle. Camp Wilderness Restaurant This place is really cool. Laid back plastic chairs, wooden tables, little Huts all under a canopy of trees.

Really a beautiful place. So this is going to be the kitchen setup for the day Under this. Hut Here the fire is going. They've laid out all of the ingredients that we're going to be cooking as well.

Well, right now he's just burning off the feathers from a couple of chickens. But then the main ingredient is the agoti, which is a grass cutter because it cuts grass and it's found in the fields. It's a favorite local wild meat and we're gonna see how they prepare this. This is fresh as could be.

Um, this is real food from the forest wild meat. We're going to cook the aguti in baseball. Oh in a clay pot? Yeah in The Clay Pot Cool Yeah, we're going to cook it. Oh, we've found some of the ingredients you see right there.

Awesome! Yeah! and we're going to do a special we call it in bowler we call it because when you are at the farm you don't do anything anything difficult. So we're going to use all these ingredients aubergine, tomato and gumbo. and Chile we're going to mix it all and just like mix it with sauce paste? Yes, Okay, yes, so is this is it. Would this becoming a common meal that you would have when you're on the farm or in the jungle? Or yeah, when you are in the jungle and then you're lucky enough to get a haguchi? Okay, this is uh, what you do and so it's a special meal.

It's a special meal when you get a Fresh Catch Yes, most of the time we get aguti or we'll have a guinea fall wild Guinea fall at the thing called White rot. Okay, yes. okay, um today. Um, okay.

so the first step is to burn off all of that hairy skin and that hair is actually quite coarse. Very coarse actually. So when he burns it you can really like scrape off the skin and the the fur but then also it like tightens up that skin as well. So once he scrapes off all the skin then really washes it well then he's just slicing it into bite-sized pieces to be able to fit into that clay clay pot to be able to cook foreign.

He just pounds up some of those fresh chilies, all the vibrant colors yellows Reds Green chilies with some onions with some salt that's just so aromatic I love that mortar and pestle and then you can just sometimes hear those chilies just pop because they're just like sealed airtight like a little balloon when it pops it just kind of like releases all of that pressure. Oh it's a beautiful chilies. you don't wear that. Okay I Will decide.

Okay so that's some of the fresh palm oil palm wine that goes into it. So this is fermented already. It's been fermented right? so it is like wine already. What a recipe! The aguti all goes into the clay jar Clay Pot along with tomatoes, onions that grounded pounded up chilies and onions as well with salt and then he adds in some more salt and some of the one of the key ingredients.

A few spoonfuls of the fresh Palm wine which is going to keep it hydrated and like bring out the juices of that alguti. that's going to be incredible. In the meantime, they're getting started. I Mean the chicken is grilling.

Uh, they put some of the plantains right directly onto the fire and also roasting off some of those yams as well. With you guys, this is the grilled chicken. Yeah, this is a quick snack. Okay, we're going to go.

Oh nice. Yes. Shake it. Rattle it around, move it around in the pot.

Yes. Oh you can hear it sloshing around. Now it's juicy juicy in there. This is from the oil palm right? Yes, okay and it's called Bonjour Banji Bunji Okay, traditionally when you invite someone, you're giving him a drink, you taste it first.

Oh okay to make sure it's safe. Yeah, okay, that's why he's drinking it. Okay, yeah and she does that and then it will dish yours. Okay, oh yeah, this is my first taste of the Bungie and it comes from the oil palm and the stump is like tapped so that the sap and all the sugars come out and then it ferments into this wine.

So it's a the local Palm wine. Oh oh that's so good. Oh yeah, it's like a really nicely sour almost to the point of being a little bit vinegary and alcoholic. Creamy and milky.

I Think the acidity is what makes it so good. That's delicious and as it starts to ferment also it starts to just like a hint of a carbonation as well so you can kind of feel the the it kind of tingle your tongue just a little bit as well and while we're at it this is a snack before the aguti is ready. we've got some of the roasted plantains and we've got some of the roasted chicken. Local ingredients right from the land.

plus it's just a small little mound of just straight up pounded fresh chilies and onions. Look at this chicken though oh man you can tell that's just all natural. One of the things like they're so good at grilling meat so that it like sits on the grill for for such a long time and it looks kind of like dried out but then you look at the inside and it's just so moist. and he has warned us that this chili is spicy.

oh oh wow that's flavorful. Um oh the freshness of those chilies. yeah they're spicy the juice of the onion the chicken is just the texture is delicious and again like I mentioned it's like moist but it has absorbed that smoke as it sat on the fire for an hour. That's just natural nature.

Oh man this is just that's delicious. Just add that down with some of the Palm wine. Thank you Wow this is yeah just as natural just in the in the wild nature. Farm Food okay then I'll move into some of the fire roasted plantains do the same thing, dip that into the chili with the onions.

it's neutral tasting there because they're green bananas or green plantains. They're not sweet yet just starchy and just neutral tasting. but again because they sat on the coals in the fire, that just they've just absorbed with that smokiness as well. And with that simple combination of pounded chilies and onions, Wow what a what a seasoning! This is just a another appetizer before the main course which is on its way.

but I think it needs to boil for a little while longer because that agroutine needs to get nice and tender and and we'll be eating it with some of the yams as well. This is some of the roasted yam. Oh yeah, that's beautiful. Cocoa is better like that than when it's chocolate.

Oh it's right off the fire. All those flaming hot stuff although yeah Michelle like fluffy. Oh it's unbelievably fluffy. and again like like Airy and again Smoky from that fire.

I Got some fresh cocoa pods as well. so sweet and creamy, almost milky. Oh this is another chicken. this is the other chicken.

Okay, you said you'll Mash mash the eggplant. Yeah, all right. Oh they're so juicy Immediately you mash those up and all the seeds come out and it like liquefies foreign s have come out of the onions and the dry chilies looks delicious. Louie almost all of the food is ready.

They're just putting the finishing touches on the dishes like the second chicken cooked down with tomatoes with eggplants with pea eggplants with chilies and then I Love what that move that they do I mean they boil it down with those ingredients, then they remove them, mash them and then put them back into the main pot to make the the sauce So the chicken is almost ready, the yams are ready. Uh the eggplant with the dry chili mashed dried chili is ready. It's gonna be an incredible meal. Nice we just go with quite a bit.

Yes! Okay and now the main event this is the the main dish. the aguti. Oh look at all that juice thank you very much Jermaine and all of the guys that cooked this is a spectacular meal. and once that um aguti came out it does have a a definite strong strong Aroma to it.

It smells really good though. I Think we should. what should help should. How should we begin to dig in? Yeah, taste the broth.

Okay this is the the soup. The Soup for the first bite that's good. That's what we want. The natural reaction yes oh yes oh it is.

Oh yeah yeah. like the the aroma is strong but the broth is actually quite quite mild, meaty and Smoky and all just absorb the sweetness of the onions I think have come out of it as well. yes the sweetness of the onions. and then with the Palm wine yeah that's what's giving it a little sweetness as well.

Oh a little drumstick. Oh a drumstick. Okay, I'll go for a drumstick. Oh wow, even the skin is so tender.

Oh it's not. It's not that strong of a taste. I think the aroma is maybe stronger than the taste The Taste is Just Good Meat firm. It doesn't taste like a small rodent that I've had before.

It tastes like more of like a chickeny. I mean it sounds kind of kind of funny that you call everything tasting like chicken, but it kind of is like chickeny and texture. but the tenderness. It's succulent.

and I think one of the things about this recipe is that it's not. It doesn't actually really cover up the flavor of the agoti itself, You really taste the natural flavor of the aguti and the skin. The skin is incredibly tender as well. It just melts in your mouth.

The skin is so so tender the way they look at that skin. For this next bite of aguti though, I Just want to I just want to grab a little bit of that dry chili. Yes, that'll take that agar to you to the next level. Yes that is like I Can't believe how tender it is again like I was thinking it will be like kind of tough and chewy.

I mean they run around cornfields and Chomp down corn plants and chew down grass fields. I mean it's non-stop running around but that's just melting your mouth. Succulent, gooey, tender, delicious, and fresh. So next up for the chicken.

yeah, this will call it like there's a laborious long they're called. Pecos Pecos is when normally you go to the farm or you are at the house and then you know that's you've been highing on that chicken and your dad doesn't want you to get it. So you take the chicken and then you do a quick broth with it. okay type of chicken.

We just did okay at the farm too. It's uh, that type of. So this is like a very common recipe yes, that that you would find very okay and fast. Okay, you know that's true.

You don't don't get that through like Edgina every day. That's quite. That's very very. the original.

The original. Yeah, Oh I think what's incredible is all of that skin has melted down. And to make this like Rich chicken broth. and then I love that move.

I mean where they boil the tomatoes, the eggplants, the chilies and the onions. They boil them in the broth in the soup until they're tender, take them out, mash them so that it makes a puree, and then add it back to that chicken oil broth that's been boiling to just increase the flavor, bring it all together and just make it into this stew. That's just so much flavor. Oh that's tasty! I Love those little pea eggplants in there too.

They give it a little bit of bitterness to balance all the all the all the flavors enough. You got a super wolf! Oh man, that tricking is so good. It's definitely again. Free range local chicken? Do they have it? Oh did you say the chicken is called the Pecos or the dish is called okay, but it's the same type of cake you know as it's cooked in the open now.

Oh okay okay okay man. I Love that's the type of chicken that when you keep on chewing, just the flavor just keeps on getting better in your mouth as you with every chew. Oh that's extraordinary. Both dishes are extremely good and then we're moving on to the yams.

Or you can. We're eating all of this with boiled yams, dip it into the moving with that chili, dip into that eggplant. Um oh the eggplant is so sweet, the onions little squeezes of lime juice to make it sour and that mashed chili is still flavorful Spicy. yeah it's delicious too.

I Think one of the amazing things about this meal is that just that every all of the ingredients are from our natural yeah, right from this, right from this farm, right right from the backyard. Everything we're eating and everything has been cooked naturally the traditional way. Cheers! Oh wow. Oh that's pure happiness.

That's just that's the most refreshing thing on earth. I Mean it literally is the nectar of the oil palm. This this dip this Mash is incredible. I think the last thing I need to try is the the yam which has been tossed in palm oil giving it that beautiful golden orange color.

Mmm I mean palm oil is just so flavorful that gives it kind of a that nutty thickness from the palm oil. kind of like holds it together also. oh that's good but with a little bit of chili. yes it will be even better.

Man the yams are good I love the way they're so puffy and like fluffy but dense at the same time. more of the aguti. The ribs oh the ribs oh that melts in your mouth oh the tenderness. Oh I mean when you taste that you will know why.

It's such a delicacy way. It's such a prized catch the hunt. It's so flavorful it's so rewarding to eat. Very very really good.

Kitchenry that tastes like that. Yeah really really? okay. okay that actually takes me literally back to that first day that I told you because the flavors just yeah. it's a different flavor to normal.

Yeah when it's cooked in that clay? No just Clay Pot as well those exact ingredients. Yeah the right ingredients smell because here it's the smell we are after. Wow, very good that's unique. That's Unique I've never heard of that.

Yeah, that's fine. No problem. that is award-winning I Mean what really does also make a difference is being cooked over the fire. Yeah gives it such an added depth of flavor.

Managed to get myself up from the table and I'm Oh, there's hammocks around here too. but I Love these just ultimate reclining chairs. Oh that's so comfortable. Oh and then just sip on some more of the bungee.

Oh yeah, this is the ultimate living in cultivar right here. All these chairs were just made for taking your last bite and reclining. That's what they were made for. Oh what a place! It's pristine, it's relaxing, it's friendly, everything is natural.

Man oh man. Outstanding meal that was local that was fresh. That was everything from the farm. Huge! thank you to Jermaine and Alec for setting this up and for arranging everything.

Also a huge thank you to my friend MO from Belco De Bar who arranged this entire trip for us. It wouldn't have been possible without him and also he does cultural immersive traditional tours of Cote D'ivoire which I'll have all of his information in the description box below. But actually this brings us to the end. the complete the finale of our entire trip traveling all the way through Cotiba, the beautiful country of Cote D'ivoire We have been here for 10 days traveling around the country and we've eaten some of the regional, some of the most remote traditional foods in the entire country.

so you're not going to want to miss any of the videos. I'll have the playlist and the link in the description box that you can click on that you can keep on watching. If you haven't already seen this entire series, but it's been so rewarding. The masks and dances have been phenomenal.

the most spectacular traditional dances I've seen in any country anywhere in the world. The food, the people. check out the audience we have for this meal, the hospitality, the diversity is something like truly remarkable country. and so again, make sure you sit back, relax and watch all the videos in this series and that wraps it up from Cote d'Ivoire I Want to say a huge thank you for watching this video? Please remember to give it a thumbs up if you enjoyed it.

Leave a comment below I'd love to hear from you and if you're not already subscribed, make sure you subscribe now for lots more food and travel videos. Thanks again for watching and I will see you on the next video. Foreign.