Waakye Vibe: Why This Ghanaian Food Is Breaking Breakfast Rules?

The meal Ghanaians call “waakye” is a whole dish, just as it is a vibe, a culture, like a way of life.

Waakye is what the people of Ghana call this very wholesome, very solid sumptuous meal.

The thing that makes this meal such a wonder?

It has broken the unwritten or written laws of breakfast meals.

It is not a beverage at all.

It is not liquid, light in weight, nor does it have anything to do with sugar or milk.

So why is it the people’s choice?

Look, personally I’m guilty as charged. Like many Ghanaians, I too, love me some waakye as my very first meal of the day.

I’ve been giving it a lot of thought you know.

Like why is this bulky, wholesome meal such a people’s favorite for breakfast?

These are what I could come up with.

First, if you have got a taste bud on your tongue that can tell unpalatable from delicious, you would understand why waakye is the boss of breakfast in Ghana.

The combination of rice and beans cooked together with red sorghum leaves for that reddish brown color, and some hot but can’t get enough black pepper sauce locally referred to as ‘shito’, and some egg, fish or meat, is unmatched.

When you add the veggies or salad, “gari” (granular extract from cassava), pear, and some fried plantain, know you’ve reached perfection.

There’s just something about that combination that gives your tongue such ‘orgasm’.

It just feels right.

The second reason I could come up with was, it just does the job of satisfying an empty stomach much better than most meals.

If you’ve been paying attention, by now you know, the waakye dish is very bulky.

Rice, beans, fried fish, gari, salad, egg, meat (cow- “face”, “kotodjwe”, “wele” fried chicken, fried goat), fried plantain, pear, stew, shito.

Even gluttons like myself get to a point we just can’t keep eating because we are full.

Another of the reasons is, waakye is readily and widely available in the mornings, and maybe afternoons.

For waakye to be sold at night, is not a common scene.

Maybe because of the oily pepper sauce (shito) or stew that sometimes can give one mean heart burn, or just because that is the culture.

Either way, waakye sellers are abound in the morning than they are at night or in the afternoons.

The final reason, I initially thought was economical. That it was affordable and cheap, but I’m no longer sure about that.

Waakye can be expensive.

So I went with, the culture of the food and the connection, history, and understanding it has with the people.

Whether it is being prepared and sold by a Northerner of the Hausa or Dagomba tribe, the poeple claimed to be the pioneers of the meal, or it is being sold by a Ga, Akan, or Ewe, the food feels like a must.

I am literally yet to meet any born and bred Ghanaian that does not eat waakye for some reason, medically or otherwise.

Waakye is just a Ghanaian thing, and I for one, am proud of it.

So get you some waakye every now and then. Just maybe stop taking it as breakfast, and take it as lunch instead.

Also take it in the leaf. They say it tastes better that way anyway, but more so, because it is clean and environmentally friendly.

Waakye, is the Ghanaian food breaking the laws of breakfast in Ghana, and for good reason.