Central Africa · Street food
Soya (Thinly Sliced Char-Grilled Spiced Beef Skewers)
Tender, wafer-thin beef ribbons are crusted in aromatic kankankan spice and flash-grilled over red-hot charcoal until smoky and sizzling.
The story
Originating among the Hausa and Fulani pastoralist communities in Cameroon's Northern regions, Soya has become the undisputed night-market king across the nation's urban centers. Skewered meats are grilled over makeshift oil-drum braziers and traditionally served folded into old brown paper with raw sliced red onions. A vital technical secret of authentic soya lies in dusting the meat with kankankan powder—a blend heavily reliant on defatted peanut cake flour (kuli-kuli) which absorbs surface juices to form an instant savory crust.
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