Fufu with nut cream (fufu sauce graine): My experience tasting it in Togo (this dish recently went viral in Québec)

Fufu sauce graine (fufu with palm nut cream) is a meal that recently went viral in Québec thanks to a Montreal restaurant run by an immigrant from Togo. I spent 11 days in the country this March (the 87^th country I visited) in the middle of my 4-month overland trip in Western Africa and I ate some very authentic fufu with palm nut cream.

Here’s why Togo has become a hot topic of interest in La Belle Province and my experience eating this viral meal.

Overview of why fufu with palm nut cream went viral in Québec

You might be among the many travelers who didn’t even know Togo existed. As is almost always the case with the media, you usually only ever hear about less popular countries if something bad happens. 

So yeah, it’s rare for a country like Togo to be in the news back home in Canada. Maybe it’s just because of the meal’s very unique name. Anyway…

Here are the basics of the viral phenomenon around fufu with palm nut cream: 

• Christine Hounkpati opened a restaurant in Montreal in June 2023
  • Hounkpati is originally from Togo
  • Her restaurant serves traditional African and Haitian cuisine
  • The most popular dish is called fufu sauce graine (also called foutou)
• The Belle Afrique restaurant became a viral phenomenon on TikTok first
  • Christine Hounkpati started recording videos of her customers regularly
  • She mostly films them after they eat fufu sauce graine
  • Some of these videos have millions of views
• Then the phenomenon went beyond social media
  • Many people come from far away to enjoy the dish
  • Even Québec Premier François Legault tried the famous meal
  • There’s even a seed sauce-scented candle called “I love seed sauce”
  • News media like La Presse covered the fufu sauce graine trend

@setopehounkpatiMerci beaucoup d’être déplacé de loin pour venir à belle Afrique ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️🥰🥰🥰🙏🏻🙏🏻♬ son original – Restaurant Belle Afrique

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Basics of fufu with palm nut cream

I’ll start by explaining fufu sauce graine, as I certainly hadn’t heard of this meal before this trip either.

Here are the basics: 

• Fufu is a type of swallow (pounded meal), a ball of dough made from cassava flour or plantains
  • It’s often served with a sauce or stews
• Sauce graine is a sauce made from ground palm seeds mixed with spices
  • It’s called seed sauce, palm nut cream, or palm nut pulp concentrate
  • There’s a listing on Amazon (but it’s not available at the moment)

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Here’s a bit more information about fufu with palm nut cream:

• You eat it with your hands
• It’s super affordable in Africa (as is almost all food here)
• It’s a popular side dish in many regions of Western and Central Africa

Learn More

Africa’s 5 different regions: introduction to this extremely exotic continent

My experience trying fufu with palm nut cream

If you follow my adventures on Instagram, by now you already know that I travel full-time and that I like to explore the roads less traveled. I just finished my longest-ever entirely overland trip, from Nigeria to Côte d’Ivoire. I am currently exploring one of the very few countries in the world that is actually somewhat dangerous, Mali.

Of course, I stopped in Togo, and I had the chance to try fufu there before it went viral.

Now, what you are all waiting to know… how it was.

I’ll say that my girlfriend enjoyed it more than I did! She even reordered fufu sauce graine a few times during those weeks.

Me… well, I honestly wasn’t that big of a fan of it. But I don’t enjoy swallows in general. 

I much preferred other meals in this country and in neighboring countries, like the avocado salads in Togo.

Maybe I just wasn’t lucky with that specific restaurant and the one in Montreal is better.

And before you ask: no, we didn’t always take our food to go. 

We also ate in while in Togo. To go, Togo. Sorry, I had to find a way to share one of my favorite maps of Africa.

Joking aside, there are many other reasons besides the food why you should go explore this beautiful West African country. 

I’ll soon share a post about the highlights of my Togo trip to give you a bit more substance than this post about fufu with palm nut cream. We want you to come to the Flytrippers website for useful tips and inspiration, so sign up for our free newsletter to get that upcoming content.

And if you don’t want to wait to go to Africa to try fufu, maybe your city has a restaurant that serves it. If not, Montreal is certainly closer. You can also follow Flytrippers’ other co-founder Andrew on Instagram as he happens to be visiting Montreal for the weekend and will share content. But knowing his eccentric food preferences, I can confidently say that he won’t be trying fufu with palm nut cream.

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Summary

Fufu with nut cream is a popular dish in Togo that went viral in Québec, most likely due to its unique name (at least in part). It wasn’t among my favorite West African foods I tried on my 4-month trip, but if you like swallows maybe you’ll enjoy it more than I did.

What would you like to know about Fufu Palm Nut Cream in Togo? Tell us in the comments below.

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Featured image: Eating fufu and Togo landscape (photo credit: Kevin Gagnon/Flytrippers)

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