Shoe Shine

You’re indoors, keeping house, just lounging or kitting up for work (regretting that there’s no time to lick-n-buff your shoes). Tat-tat, rat-tat. Silence. Rat-tat, rat-tat. Yes, you heard it! A shoe-shine boy (bless him twice) is drumming up the street to burnish your kickers. But before the hour is surely saved, you have to insure that the polish is “Kiwi”, unless you don’t mind “Lude”.

Ayigbe Toffee

Sweetened condensed milk; fraction-frizzled in a pan, on a hot flame, into a tempting tan; window-silled to cool to a pliant plasticine. Rolled or moulded into fanciful figures – cylinders and snakes, squares and triangles; finger-licking good.

Daakowa

Roasted corn and groundnuts; milled and melded into a jellified mush; left to stand for a while to catch and cast off the groundnut grease; blended with ginger, sugar and Wisa seeds; kneaded into delightful, doughy, sienna globules.

Suya

Udder of cow; thinly sliced and then cultured with vinegar, oil, salt, and ground-pepper-and-groundnuts. Charcoal-grilled in the open air from about dusk beside the road. Served sizzling in cutlets wrapped up in paper.

Kube Cake

Coconut shavings desiccated and roasted in golden sunrays; devilishly varnished in creamy caramel; ‘butterly’ balled up before it cools and crystallises. Textured, golden globes of pleasure.

Kelewele

Deep-fried-till-golden, diced, ginger-glorified plantain, sweetening the Accra night air. Pecked while still hot and almost aglow. Relish with roasted groundnuts if you wish. Love it, but don’t be a calorie counter.

Airport Shell

It squats on the auxiliary artery which leads from the Airport roundabout to the Gifford Road (to Burma Camp). It used to be closed at 1 a.m. until armed robbers registered their unwanted approval. Now all the lights go out at 11 p.m. It serves fuel; flaunts a ‘corner store’; holds a handy garage; seduces with the Cockpit Grill, and exposes a car park to stand at if you wish ‘Airport’, ‘East Legon’ and ‘Spintex Road’ to see you on their way home at night.