When you visit Ghana, the best place to really sample local food is from one of the local restaurants known as chop bars. At the chop bar you can eat the popular Ghana dish known as fufu.

Fufu is a tough dough-like food made from cassava and plantain pounded to a pulp in a mortar with a pestle. It is usually served with a soup known as light soup, which made from vegetables and goat meat or from a soup made from peanuts known as groundnut soup. It can also be served with palm soup, a soup made from the fruit of the palm tree.

We will use this article to learn how to order and pay for fufu at a chop bar.

AT THE CHOP BAR

When you want to order fufu at a chop bar, you say to the waitress

Mepε sε mehyε fufuo – I’d like to order some fufu

If the fufu is served with more than one kind of soup, the waitress will ask

Mepa wo kyεw fufuo ne deεn nkwan? – Fufu and what kind of soup, please?

To this question you will say

Mεnya fufuo ne nkraakra anaa? – Can I get some fufu with light soup?

If you want fufu with groundnut soup, you will say

Mεnya fufuo ne nkatenkwan anaa? – Can I get some fufu with groundnut soup?

If you want fufu with palm soup, you will say

Mεnya fufuo ne abεnkwan anaa? – Can I get some fufu with palm soup?

Also your answer can be

Ma me fufuo ne nkraakra – Give me fufu and light soup

The waitress will then ask you how much you want to buy. She will say

Wobεtɔ fufuo no sεn? – How much fufu will you buy?

If you know how much you want to buy, you can say

Ma me fufuo no 50Gp ne εnam GH¢1.50 – Give me fufu 50Gp and meat GH¢1.50

If you don’t know how much it costs, you can enquire from the waitress by saying

Mo fufuo no mote no sεn sεn? – How much does the fufu cost?

She will tell you the price and then you can proceed with your order

If you want a bottle of beer, you can say

Mεnya nsa toa baako anaa? – May I have a bottle of beer?

Normally, when your food is served you will have extra things like salt, pepper and a glass or sachet of water by your food. But sometimes some of the waitresses forget this.

When you want some salt, you say to the waitress

Mεnya nkyene kakra? – Could I have some salt?

When you want some pepper, you say to the waitress

Mεnya mako kakra? – Could I have some pepper?

When you want some water, you say

Mepa wo kyεw, brε me nsuo konko baako – A glass of water, please

After you finish eating you pay the money to the waitress by saying

Mepa wo kyεw mepε sε metua ka sesei ara – I would like to pay now, please

WORDS TO TAKE NOTE OF

Fufuo – Fufu

Nkwan – Soup

Nkraakra – Light soup

Nkatenkwan – Groundnut soup

Abεnkwan – Palm soup

Nkyene – Salt

Mako – Pepper

Nsa – Beer

Nsuo – Water

In this article we have looked at how to buy fufu from a chop bar in Ghana. I hope you found it educative and informative. Keep reading our articles to learn some basic Twi. To learn even more Twi phrases that you can use in all manner of situations, get the Nkyea Twi Phrasebook iphone app for only $2.99 on the Apple Store. If you have any questions feel free to ask in the Nkyea Forum.

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