Gluten-Free in Dakar

I’ll be honest, I didn’t eat out much in Dakar. Other than some fresh fish, most menus looked like gluten bombs, and I didn’t have the energy to be the foreigner with all the questions and special requests. Non-Celiac Gluten Sensitivity (NCGS) and Celiac disease aren’t widely known here, so expect blank stares if you try to explain, and likely an inattention to cross-contamination and secondary ingredients. And the go-to apps for finding restaurants aren’t bursting with recommendations for this city.

Still, Dakar has a few gluten-free bright spots, notably some great local grains that make eating at home both safe, delicious, and, for once, affordable.

Request to amplify and improve: If you’re not gluten-free, please share this with someone who is so they can share it with others who may find it useful? And if you’re GF here in Dakar and have some suggestions, please add them in the comments? Thank you!

Fonio bread from @mariehelenesignature

EATING/ORDERING OUT

**Rasoi and other Indian restaurants**

I tried Rasoi in Ngor, by the Casino du Cap Vert. Was it amazing Indian food? Nope. But it was quick, relatively affordable, good enough, and didn’t make me sick.

I can imagine that other Indian restaurants would be ok as well, as long as you stick to the North Indian gravies that don’t have fried components. Of course, there’s a small chance at any Indian restaurant that their asafetida contains a wheat flour filler, or they give you a surprise naan on your plate or in your bag…

**Marie Hélène Signature**

If you miss bread — and believe me, you will in a city full of baguettes and croissants — this is your best bet. Marie Hélène bakes with local grains, and her menu is insanely long, spanning everything from with breads and cakes to cookies and fruit tartes! It is not cheap, but worth it for a treat?

I ordered a fonio bread online and, despite the 48-hour notice on her website, she had it delivered via Yango the next day. It was big and dense, and had a slightly sourdough-like sour tang to it, from the fonio. Not bad!

Payment works with Orange Money or Wave, and she even sent freezing and reheating instructions for my bread.

*** Marie also offers baking classes and sells GF flour mixes; I haven’t tried these yet.

**Shady’s Grill**

Go for the Greek salad; it’s fresh, satisfying, and so huge that it comes with tongs. And maybe add the mint lemonade?

I avoided anything fried since the kibbe shares the fryer with other items.

A crêperie on Gorée Island

Friends recommended a Breton-style crêperie near the prison that has buckwheat crepes and also serves cider. I didn’t try it myself, so proceed with caution and ask questions.

Fresh seafood at restaurants

You’ll find plenty of fresh, simply prepared seafood on menus, from grilled fish to prawns and calamari. It’s often the safest choice, but still ask how it’s prepared. Many kitchens use bouillon cubes in marinades or sauces, fried dishes may share oil with gluten-containing foods, and any grilling surface may be shared with things that are breaded or sauced.

DRINKS OUT

Beer, maybe

Kalao microbrewery makes a beer called La Dakaroise that’s reportedly gluten-free. It’s available in some bars and through Club Thiossane, in theory. I never managed to track one down…

Cocktails and… wheat straws?

At Lala Beach, I was served a drink with a straw that looked like brown, semi-translucent plastic. After asking a few servers to check — and it took a few because the straw packages did not have a label — we were told that it’s a wheat straw. They might be wheat plant stalks, which technically don’t have gluten but are at risk of contamination.

A similar straw at KoTao again raised some questions, that the unlabeled package couldn’t answer but eventually a phone call to the supplier did. These were sugar cane straws.

The straws look the same to me, the packaging doesn’t help clarify anything. But I’m not sure there’s a culture of completely remaking food or drink to avoid contamination from a single item. When in doubt, maybe tell your server upfront that you don’t want a straw?

COOKING AT HOME

Eating at home is where Dakar shines for gluten-free living, thanks to local grains.

Local grains

Millet

You’ll find millet products like arraw and sankhal in supermarkets and even gas station mini-markets. They’re both perfect for making laax, a warm breakfast porridge. Use a ~3:1 water-to-millet ratio and stir constantly for about 15 minutes. I like to eat my laax sankhal with soow — a sweet, watery yogurt like Dolima Vanilla — but it’s also great with nuts, dried fruit, and spices. Nutritious, cheap, local, and naturally gluten-free.

Fonio

Sometimes called a “supergrain,” fonio is light and couscous-like. It’s available in supermarkets and occasionally in gas station shops. Senegalese chef Pierre Thiam has helped popularize it internationally, and it makes a welcome break from rice.

** About locally milled grains: From what I know, wheat is only milled in industrial-scale facilities, and most local grains get milled locally. So I tend to trust locally-milled gluten-free flours and broken grains.

Gluten-free good and products

Unfortunately, the joys of supermarket delivery won’t always work. Not all delivery platforms list product ingredients, and you can’t find ingredient lists online for all products. Although, as you may know, my go-to GF meal in a new place is wine and potato chips, and Taf-Taf didn’t disappoint.

That said, the bigger the supermarket, the more options you’ll have for each product as you read labels and decide. And, while generally rare, a few stories even have certified GF products! Casino supermarket in les Almadies has Schar take-and-bake baguettes and some gluten-free pasta. The American Food Store has King Arthur’s Cup-for-Cup. And it’s rumored that there’s a store on the ground floor of Sea Plaza that has a variety of Schar goodies.

How much do these items cost? Whatever you’re thinking, triple it. At least. But I still don’t regret my 10usd pair of baguettes.

CEEBUJEN? SOMETIMES.

Senegal’s national dish, ceebujën (rice and fish), can be gluten-free, as can many other local specialties, but it’s hit or miss and will require quite a few questions. At minimum, you’ll need to ask about:

Bouillon cubes

Maggi Arome (the liquid seasoning) is not gluten-free. Some Maggi cubes might be, as they don’t list any gluten-containing ingredients, but they do have questionable elements like “flavoring”. So the jury is still out, and Maggi’s website didn’t couldn’t confirm. The same goes for Jumbo, Adja, and other brands.

That said, I was pleasantly surprised to find some home cooks saying they skip the once-ubiquitous bouillon cubes altogether. Just be careful; yhey may use other spice mixes that contain gluten, or may even use a different type of gluten-containing or questionable bouillon cube.

Oil reuse

Sometimes the oil for frying is used for multiple things, some of which contain gluten.

Mustard

The commonly used mustards I checked were gluten-free…

FINAL THOUGHTS

Gluten-free in Dakar is doable, but eating out is tricky, or at least fraught with questions and uncertainties. If you want the social side of eating out, which revolves around gluten-heavy foods, be prepared for limited options and to explain what you can and cannot eat, starting with the very basics. Consider drinking out instead?

If you have hosts or friends who are open to all of your questions, go for it! Their local dishes just might be gluten free.

Or, be ready to cook for yourself! Millet and fonio quickly became my staples, and fresh and simply prepared seafood is common.

if you’re ready to cook for yourself, the city’s local grains make it surprisingly easy to eat well and affordably without gluten.

One last thing…

I might be wrong! The info above is based on my experience and at this point in time.

So please always ask questions, read labels, take precautions.

And if you’ve had fully different experiences in Dakar, or — even better — you have restaurant recommendations and additional tips for having “the conversation”, please please please share them in the comments!