At lunchtime, the queue forms outside a small building with a wooden sign. Inside, pots of soup steam, and a woman pounds fufu at the back. This is a chop bar, and it is where much of Accra eats.
Chop bars are Ghana’s local restaurants. They serve traditional dishes at prices ordinary workers can afford.
What you will find
Most chop bars serve a handful of staples:
- Fufu with light soup, groundnut soup or palm nut soup.
- Banku with okro stew or pepper and fish.
- Kenkey with fried fish and shito.
- Omo tuo, rice balls, usually served with groundnut or palm nut soup.
- Rice with stew, and in some places jollof.
Meat and fish come separately: goat, beef, chicken, tilapia, snails or cow skin, known as wele.
How to order
Tell the server what you want, with which soup and which meat. Prices depend on the size of your portion and your choice of meat or fish. Many places let you add extra pieces for a little more.
Water for hand-washing is usually provided in a bowl. Fufu, banku and kenkey are eaten with the right hand.
Finding a good one
The best signs are a crowd at lunchtime, a steady turnover of food and clean serving areas. Ask colleagues and taxi drivers for their favourite spots. Some chop bars are famous for one dish, such as goat light soup or palm nut soup.
Hygiene
Standards vary. Look for places where food is kept covered and hot, and where hand-washing water is changed regularly. The 2014 cholera outbreak in Accra led to crackdowns on unsanitary food sellers.
Chop bar culture
Chop bars are social places. Workers talk politics and football over their soup, and regulars know the owner by name. Many chop bars are run by women who built their businesses over decades.
Prices
A chop bar meal usually costs far less than a restaurant plate, which is why students and workers rely on them. Prices rise with the cost of cassava, plantain, meat and fuel, and regulars notice every increase.
Changing tastes
Fast food chains and modern restaurants have grown in Accra, but chop bars remain popular, partly because of price and partly because nothing else tastes like home.
The lunch hour
By two in the afternoon, the best chop bars have run out of their most popular soup. Accra office workers learn quickly that the secret to a good chop bar lunch is simple: go early.
