Mali's Cuisine

Cuisine in Mali is generally very basic due to the fact that the Malian people are not well off, and as a result they cannot afford luxurious meals.  It is estimated that Malians spend about half of their income on food, which means that they have to buy goods that allow them to make the most out of that very significant budget drain.  While cuisine varies among Mali’s different cultural regions, the typical meal is porridge made up of corn, millet, or rice, and accompanied by some type of meat, vegetable, or fish sauce.  This is the typical meal that a moderately well-off family in Bamako, the capital city, would enjoy.  Malians in the southern region of the country would prepare a slight variation of this meal, including all the same ingredients, but creating a pudding rather than porridge.  In the North, the Songhay and Touareg groups’ specialty is thick, doughy pancakes served with wild leaves.  Overall, the essential ingredients of Malian food are very basic and all natural which makes sense given that 80% of Malians either fish or farm as their livelihood.  While the food may be basic, the creation and consumption of meals involves very rigid social norms.  From a young age, girls are taught how to cook, and from then on are always in charge of preparing meals.  Furthermore, food must always be eaten with the right hand; eating with the left hand is very disgraceful in Mali’s culture.

            While the preparation of elaborate dishes is not a signature aspect of life in Mali, the consumption of tea has great cultural significance.  The preparation and drinking of tea is a time when families and friends get together to catch up, relax, and enjoy one another’s company.  Tea is consumed constantly throughout the day, and usually served in three rounds.  The first cup of tea is strong in flavor and it represents life.  The second cup is very sweet and it represents love.  The third is very bitter and represents death. Every day in Mali, “tea-drinking groups called grins meet to take part in the ceremony of the three teas.”  The tea that Malians typically drink is Chinese green tea and it is served in shot glasses with large amounts of sugar, sometimes boiled with a hint of mint.

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