Soya (Cameroonian Suya)

Soya is Cameroon's roadside skewer, larger-cut than Nigerian suya and rubbed with a peanut-chilli spice blend before grilling over open flame. Beef, goat and gizzard versions all thrive, and it is sold by soya men at night markets in Douala, Yaoundé and every town along the roads between them.

It travelled west to east with Hausa traders, the same route that carried suya to Ghana and agashe to Sudan, and Cameroon adapted it by scaling up the cut. Where a Nigerian mai suya slices paper-thin, a Cameroonian soya man works in chunks — which changes both the cooking and the eating.

The larger cut means a longer, gentler cook and a different relationship between spice and meat. A thin slice of suya is almost all crust; a soya chunk has an interior, so the meat's own flavour carries more of the dish and the spice sits on the outside as a coating rather than defining the whole bite.

The spice goes on before grilling and again after, as in the whole family, but the pre-grill application is thinner because it has longer over the fire and would otherwise burn. Gizzards are a Cameroonian speciality and need the longest cook of anything on the grill — they are parboiled first at most stands.

Beef or goat in three-centimetre chunks, and chicken gizzards, which are genuinely popular and worth trying — parboil them for twenty minutes before skewering. Fat left on.

The spice blend is ground kuli-kuli or roasted peanut, dried chilli, ginger, garlic and onion powder, plus a crumbled stock cube, which Cameroonian cooking uses freely. Groundnut oil for brushing. Raw onion and extra pepper to serve.

Off the skewer with raw onion, extra pepper and often a chilled beer, from a night-market stand. Sometimes with fried plantain or bread. It is evening food and the soya man is a recognised figure in Cameroonian street life.