Polydish city guide

Best Waakye in San Francisco

“Rice and beans cooked with sorghum leaf sheaths and limestone give waakye its characteristic red flavor and roadside presence.”

Waakye

What the real thing tastes like

Waakye ( WAH-chay) is a Ghanaian dish of cooked rice and beans, commonly eaten for breakfast or lunch. Rice and beans, usually black eyed peas or cow beans, are cooked together, along with red dried sorghum leaf sheaths or stalks and kaun (powdered limestone). The sorghum leaves and limestone give the dish its characteristic flavor and a red appearance and the sorghum is taken out before consumption. The word waakye is from the Dagbani language, and refer to a particular type of beans. In Hausa, the bean and the dish are called wake, a contracted form of the full name shinkafa da wake which means rice and beans. Waakye is commonly sold by roadside vendors. It is then commonly wrapped in banana leaf and accompanied by one or more of Wele stew, boiled chicken eggs, garri, shito, vegetable salad of cabbage, onions and tomatoes, spaghetti (which is called talia in Ghana) or fried plantain.

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Waakye is a Ghanaian breakfast staple where rice and beans cook together with dried sorghum leaf sheaths and powdered limestone—these two unexpected ingredients transform simple legumes into something distinctly red and aromatic before the sorghum is pulled out. You'll find it wrapped in banana leaves from roadside vendors, ready to be layered with stewed meat, fried plantains, or a bright cabbage-and-tomato salad. The name travels through languages: Dagbani calls it waakye, while in Hausa it echoes as wake, short for shinkafa da wake—rice and beans, the foundation everything else builds on.

Order it here when it has

  • characteristic flavor from sorghum and limestone
  • versatile companion-friendly
  • accessible street food

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