Staple foods include sorghum, millet, rice, maize, peanuts, potatoes, beans, yams and okra. Meat is a luxury in the villages, but eggs and fish - from the local rivers and reservoirs - are an important source of protein. Salad vegetables and strawberries grown in market gardens are commonly available in the towns.

Sauces are a mainstay of the Burkinab� diet - for example 'riz gras' is rice mixed with vegetable sauce, meat, and oil and 'sauce gombo' is a sticky okra-based stew. Sauces are usually served with t� (a stiff white porridge made of millet, sorghum or maize flour) or rice, and eaten with the right hand. In Bissa t� is known as wu, and in Moor� it is called sagabo. Specialities include brochettes (meat cooked on a skewer) and chicken dishes. In rural areas bush rat is considered a delicacy.

African 'stock-cubes' are made from n�r� seeds which are fermented and rolled into a ball

N�r� seeds are used to flavour the sauces that accompany every meal of t� or rice. N�r� trees are never cleared from farming land because their black seeds are a vital part of every meal. The seeds are fermented and shaped into balls, called soumbala or Maggi Africain (African stock-cubes). When a landowner leases a plot of land to another farmer, the rights of the tree crops go to the tenant. But if there are n�r� trees on the land the owner will always keep the rights to the crop.

Water is the most common drink, but d�lo, a home-brewed millet beer, and bissap, a reddish drink made with bissap (hibiscus) flowers are also popular in towns. Zoomkoom is a popular soft drink, made from millet flour and water flavoured with ginger and lemon and generously sweetened. (In Moore 'zoom' means ‘flour’ and 'koom' is water.)

the story of the children of the rice