Food in the Ivory Coast was not what I expected. I recently spent several weeks eating my way through the economic capital of Abidjan, doing my best to sample as much of the local cuisine as possible. I was expecting some similarities to east African cuisines, which generally have soft and mild flavours, but Ivory …

West Africa is a place that’s been on my list for so many years. I’ve set foot on the north, the east and the south of the continent, but the west has always escaped me until now. When my schedule and a cheap flight lined up this year, I had to go. I booked a …