Eaten across West Africa, akara is a popular breakfast option in Nigeria. The Hausa refer to it as Kosai. In many parts of the country, it is possible to buy it on the street in the mornings and evenings. In its purest form, it is simply a blend of peeled beans, onions, chilli, salt and crayfish. Interestingly enough, it is also a popular street food in Brazil, introduced by West African slaves; there it is fried in palm oil and known as acarajé. One of my favourite things as a teenager in Nigeria, was to buy hot akara (bean fritters) from a roadside vendor and squash it in between slices of soft white Nigerian bread. If there was some spicy tomato sauce ready, even better. Nigerian bread is denser and sweeter than Western bread, a cross between the Jewish cholla and the West Indian hard-dough bread.