West Africa · Street food
Wagashi Frit (Fried Fulani Cow Milk Curd Cheese)
Crispy, golden squares of fresh cow milk curd fried to order and dusted in zesty kan-kan chili salt, straight from Burkinabè cattle markets.
The story
Wagashi is an artisanal fresh cheese crafted by pastoral Fulani women across northern and central Burkina Faso, celebrated for its unique non-melting properties when exposed to high heat. Vendors fry thick slabs in bubbling groundnut oil at bustling livestock markets and roadside stalls, serving them hot in recycled paper wrappers. The traditional curdling process utilizes the crushed leaves or sap of the wild Sodom apple (Calotropis procera), whose botanical enzymes coagulate raw milk within minutes without requiring bacterial rennet or acid.
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