This edition of Friday’s Featured Food will take us back from Ivory Coast in December 2024 to Cameroon 9 months prior via a visa quest for the Central African Republic. In March 2024 when backpacking in Douala, Cameroon, I asked my guide Mebah Markdonald (of Discover Cameroon Tours) if I could attend a top division Cameroon League football match. My wish was granted and I ended up watching the play-off between Stade Renard and Canon Yaounde.

By a nuts coincidence, Samuel Eto’o just randomly turned up at this match and was watching it in the stand, near me. At one point I was sat in front of him. At another point, there was nobody in the gap of seats between Samuel and I!

He was a gentleman and he gave me his autograph on the back of my match ticket! What an incredible memory from my visit to Cameroon. Apart from Roger Milla and Omam-Biyick, for me Samuel Eto’o is the third most famous and important Cameroonian of all time! And there was me chatting to him at a normal league match! Yet somehow that all links to December 2024 in the Ivory Coast and my reunion with Dayo Williams!

After meeting Samuel Eto’o in Cameroon, fast forward 9 months to December 2024 and I’m in the Ivory Coast, yes a rival country of Cameroon for football. I was reunited again with Dayo Williams. Dayo was my guide when I got my first Ivory Coast visa back in 2018. On that trip, I stayed at the swanky Ibis Plateau Hotel in Abidjan and backpacked the sights of Abidjan and the seaside city of Grand Bassam. This time we were staying at the Residences Touristhotel in Cocody, Abidjan. Marek was touring with me – we celebrated New Year 2025 here in the Cocody district, where we also tried to source the visa for the Central African Republic…we heard there was a Central African Republic Embassy here.

However, we spent an hour driving all around the Embassies District of Abidjan – we saw the Gabon Embassy, the Angola Embassy, even the USA Embassy and the France Embassy. But the Central African Republic Embassy in Abidjan has now closed. We found it and it looked like this (as of 30th December 2024)…also Abidjan isn’t actually the capital of Ivory Coast – it’s a coastal city, a monster and it’s viewed as the “commercial capital”, but Yamoussoukro is the actual capital city.

Our previous two failed attempts were in Warszawa, Poland and Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.

Once we realised we had failed at getting a Central African Republic visa for the third time, we decided on a late breakfast with good food and coffee. Our guide Dayo knew just the spot and by a wild coincidence we were heading to Eto’o Food!! Yes, Eto’o!! Named after Cameroonian footballer Samuel Eto’o who I had met that year 9 months earlier at Cameroon Away! This looked to  be a great spot for lunch, especially since it’s not always easy to find food with organic herbs in Africa.

After the delicious looking beef pepper rolls arrived, the lady brings over a hot flask and pours the water for our coffees. Marek awaits it below and it’s time to tuck in to this breakfast! We had extra chilli spice on them as it helps fend off those deadly mosquitoes. While we are not exactly food bloggers, we are certainly seasoned pioneers of the travel industry!

This was actually my favourite breakfast on that whole trip to Africa.

Here is a video of Friday’s Featured Food: Beef🥩Pepper🌶️Onion🧅Rolls🥖At Breakfast At Eto’o Restaurant in Abidjan, Ivory Coast 🇨🇮