Senegal

In Senegal, hot peppers (piment) are vital to both agriculture and cuisine. Farmers grow Capsicum frutescens and annuum—including bird’s eye–type chilies and local long red and green varieties—sold fresh, dried, and as chili pastes.

Piment is essential in thiéboudienne (ceebu jën), the national fish-and-rice dish, and in yassa (lemon-onion chicken), maafe (peanut stew), and countless street foods, with “piment tyson” a colloquial name for very hot chilies in some contexts.

Senegalese pepper sauces, often blending habanero-type chilies with tomato and onion, are increasingly bottled for export. Imports of foreign sauces exist but local piment-based condiments dominate.

Flavours are layered—acidic, garlicky, and deeply savoury with chilies providing assertive but balanced heat.