Gabon

Africa · This week's dish comes from Libreville

About Gabon

Gabonese food is Central African and forest-rich, grilled fish and bushmeat, cassava, plantain, and the palm-nut stew nyembwe. Peppery, palm-oil-laced sauces define a table shaped by rainforest and river.

Nyembwe is named for the palm nut itself, the pulp boiled and pressed into a thick orange sauce, and it is the same preparation the Congos call moambe, so neither country invented it. Baton de manioc is the everyday starch beside it, fermented cassava paste rolled tight in leaves and steamed into a firm stick that keeps for days.

Almost nine tenths of Gabon is forest, and rivers rather than roads have long been the way through it, which shapes the cooking towards river fish, smoked and grilled, and towards leaves and roots close to hand. Bushmeat is a real part of that history and a legally and ecologically fraught one, which is worth stating rather than celebrating.

The wider picture: Fifty-four countries of tagines, stews, and fire-kissed grills.

This week's dish: Bananes au Four Croustillantes (Crisp Baked Bananas)

Bananas rolled in breadcrumbs, fried crisp and baked, then dressed with brown sugar and cool cream, a Gabon classic.

Serves 4 · Prep 15 min · Cook 15 min · Difficulty: easy

See the full recipe: ingredients, steps and dietary swaps →

Grown-up jobs: any step that uses a hot stove, oven, boiling water, or a sharp knife is for a teacher or parent. Children can measure, mix, and assemble.

Discussion prompts

1. Find Gabon on a world map or globe. It sits in Africa. Which oceans or neighboring countries does it touch, and roughly how far is it from where you live?

2. Bananes au Four Croustillantes (Crisp Baked Bananas) comes from Libreville, in Gabon. Read its ingredient list together. Which of those foods do you think are grown or raised nearby, and how might the country's climate and landscape explain that?

3. Read the short story behind Bananes au Four Croustillantes (Crisp Baked Bananas). How have the people, trade routes, and history of Gabon shaped what ends up on the plate there?

4. Compare Bananes au Four Croustillantes (Crisp Baked Bananas) to a dish your own family cooks. What is similar, what is different, and what one question would you ask a family in Gabon about how they make and share it?

5. After you cook Bananes au Four Croustillantes (Crisp Baked Bananas), add Gabon to a classroom map and give it a stamp. Write down one fact about its food or geography that you did not know this morning.

🌍 Spin the Globe · Geography through food · spintheglobeofficial.com/for-teachers

🍽 Open the full Bananes au Four Croustillantes (Crisp Baked Bananas) recipeServings dial, dietary swaps for every table, and its own print button.

🍳 Kitchen SchoolShort lessons on the core skills the recipes lean on.

📋 More teacher resourcesThe printable passport, how to run Country of the Week, and every country page.