Ghanaian snacks guide

The savoury bites to start with

Chinchinga (also called kyinkyinga) is the one to hunt down first: skewers of beef, gizzard or chicken, grilled over coals and dusted with a peppery groundnut spice mix. It is Ghana's take on suya, sold in the evenings by grillers whose smoke you can smell down the street. Kelewele — ripe plantain cut into cubes, tossed with ginger, chilli and spices and deep-fried — is the other essential, sweet and hot at once, best bought hot from a night stall.

Koose (fried bean cakes made from black-eyed peas, ground with onion and pepper) is a morning staple, often eaten with a soft bread roll. Thin, crisp plantain chips round out the savoury end; the chips come sweet from ripe plantain or firmer and starchy from green, and both are sold in cheap sealed bags at every kiosk and petrol station. Our Ghana street food guide goes deeper on the full spread.

None of this costs much, and the portions are generous enough to keep you going between meals. If you only try two things, make them chinchinga after dark and a bag of hot kelewele.

Sweet bites and fried dough

Bofrot — sometimes called togbei — are deep-fried balls of lightly sweet dough, crisp on the outside and soft within, sold warm in the morning and evening. They are the classic pairing with a cup of tea or Milo, and a bag of them is the easiest street snack to love.

For something sweeter and firmer, nkate cake is groundnut (peanut) brittle: roasted peanuts set in caramelised sugar and cut into slabs that snap between your teeth. Coconut candy (grated coconut cooked down with sugar until chewy) works the same way. You will also find roasted plantain sold with a handful of raw groundnuts — the salty, chewy nuts against the soft, smoky plantain is a combination locals swear by, and it costs next to nothing. Tigernut sweets and toffees round out the trays that hawkers carry.

Around Osu and the busier junctions, hawkers carry trays of these through slow traffic, so you rarely have to go far.

Where and when to find them

Snacks track the rhythm of the day. Bofrot and koose appear at breakfast and again in the evening; chinchinga and kelewele are firmly after-dark food, cooked fresh as the grills fire up. Markets like Makola run all day, roadside kiosks catch the commuter crowds, and hawkers work the traffic at major junctions.

Labadi Beach in Accra is a reliable spot at weekends, with vendors selling kelewele, grilled kebabs, coconuts and toffees to the crowds — see our Ghana beaches guide.

Carry small notes and coins, since vendors rarely have change for large ones. For more on filling an Accra day around eating and browsing, see our things to do in Accra.

Eating street snacks safely

Street snacking in Ghana is low-risk if you follow a few habits. Favour hot, freshly fried or grilled items over anything that has sat out, and buy from busy vendors whose stock moves fast. Fried dough like bofrot, deep-fried plantain and grilled skewers are all cooked to order and among the safest choices.

Be more cautious with peeled fruit and anything raw or room-temperature. Drink bottled or sachet water and sealed soft drinks rather than tap water or homemade iced drinks — our note on water and what to drink in Ghana sets out why. Carry hand sanitiser for when there is no water to wash with.

Snacks worth taking home

A few of these travel well. Sealed bags of plantain chips, nkate cake and coconut candy make cheap, genuinely Ghanaian gifts that survive a suitcase, and supermarkets stock tidily packaged versions if you want something presentable. Buy sealed, keep them in your checked bag, and check your home country's rules on bringing in food.

Our souvenir guide covers the wider options, from kente and beads to shito and spices, if you are stocking up before you fly.

Plan a snack-led day in Accra

The joy of Ghanaian snacks is stumbling on a great grill or a warm bag of bofrot at the right moment — and that happens faster with someone who knows the streets. We live in Kasoa, run these trips every week, and can put together a relaxed afternoon-into-evening of eating: a market graze, a chinchinga grill after dark, and a swing past Labadi at the weekend.

Tell us your dates, group size and what you most want to taste, and we will send a plan. We quote honestly on group size, vehicle and distance rather than posting a fixed figure.

Questions people ask