Best Dishes at Dept. of Culture

Wara is a traditional Yoruba cheese with a mild taste and squeaky texture. Here it's bathed in a complex sauce built from roasted peppers and tomatoes. The cheese's simplicity is the foil for a sauce that's both aromatic and fiery. A refined, elegant dish that shows what can be done with humble ingredients.

A refined take on a Yoruba staple. The pounded yam is velvety and yielding, paired with okra that's studded with two kinds of smoked fish — tilapia and another variety — creating layers of umami. It's comforting and complex at once, and shows the depth that Nigerian cooking achieves through technique and ingredient selection.

Ayo takes the traditional suya preparation — usually beef rubbed with ground peanuts and yaji spices — and swaps the meat for hearty trumpet mushrooms. The result is nutty, earthy, and still deeply flavorful, served on a bed of fresh cucumber slices. It's a vegetarian riff that doesn't feel like a compromise.