Friday’s Featured Food: Spicy Atlantic Oysters at Coqueiros, Bissau, Guinea-Bissau🇬🇼

“No pearls inside my oyster; just a world with no answers” – Ian McCullough.

Growing up in the seaside city of Bangor definitely influenced me in wateric terms. I love the water, the ocean, the sea. Then again, I also lived in Belfast, Bournemouth, Poole, Dartford, London, Sydney, Gdańsk and The Kong hardly shy of a river or a beach. All of them seasidic / seasidal. Seafood though is actually not totally one my favourite food types…wild but true!

Friday’s Featured Food: Spicy Atlantic Oysters at Coqueiros, Bissau, Guinea-Bissau

Dulse would do though…and oysters.

“Dulse tonight. She eats Comber spuds, Kelsie Burrows. Tomorrow she’ll eat scones” – Self penned for Northern Ireland International footballer Kelsie Burrows from my Mum’s hometown, Comber.

Friday’s Featured Food: Spicy Atlantic Oysters at Coqueiros, Bissau, Guinea-Bissau

The point? I’m actually more spuds than seafood, I’m more chicken than calamary and I’m more beef than barracuda. Even though I’m not a food freak, seafood doesn’t always win. Friday’s Featured Food is for you actually readers, it has never been for me. I ate it, but I took photos and wrote about it because I want you to eat it too as I’m not a food blogger and have no craving to be. Usually (and this is a secret) I only eat these things once, and each meal is usually a one-off, different. I literally eat them once, for the blog and then write it and move on.

Friday’s Featured Food: Spicy Atlantic Oysters at Coqueiros, Bissau, Guinea-Bissau

Oysters though…I love them. I ate them many times, I served them in pubs I worked in, I promoted them but I never caught them. In Portuguese, they are called Ostras. Easy spot.

And so I ended up in Coqueiros Bar, Cafe and Restaurant in Bissau. This is a splendid place, easily the best bar in Bissau!! After getting a Guinea-Bissau visa on arrival, checking into my hotel – Coimbra Hotel and Spa, it was time to head to Coqueiros.

Friday’s Featured Food: Spicy Atlantic Oysters at Coqueiros, Bissau, Guinea-Bissau

Plus this experience eating Oysters in Guinea-Bissau was magnificent. Travel isn’t just backpacking loyal and a few football matches for me.
I feast my eyes on the huge menu in Coqueiros. The Oysters catch my eye but I assume its a starter. Oysters were always dear in pubs I worked in. I remember PJ Gallaghers Irish Pub in Australia would be 10 dollars for 4 Oysters. Here, I saw that the Oysters in Coqueiros were 4,500 West African Francs. That’s about 5.5 Euros. Decent, and I expected to get 4,5 or 6 Oysters.

“Stand up for the Oystermen” – Colchester United fans.

International beers in Coqueiros, Bissau

I ordered a beer too. Cerveja, as the language in Guinea-Bissau is Portuguese. They had almost a “craft/world beer menu” here, a rarity in most of Africa except Joe’s Bar (Namibia) and The Beer Barrel bar (also Namibia). I had to drink the Portuguese stuff, Cristal as the local Guinea-Bissau beer was out of stock. Wowzer. I’d later try it in Pensao Creole, my humble final abode in Bissau.

My Cristal Beer

Oysters in Guinea-Bissau though, are a little bit special. I was in for a shock when a huge silver tray rammed with Oysters arrived. I couldn’t count them. None were open and ready buy I was given a knife 🔪.

Friday’s Featured Food: Spicy Atlantic Oysters at Coqueiros, Bissau, Guinea-Bissau

Friday’s Featured Food: Spicy Atlantic Oysters at Coqueiros, Bissau, Guinea-Bissau

It was a do it yourself and I loved it. I challenged myself to cut open every single oyster and eat them all.

Friday’s Featured Food: Spicy Atlantic Oysters at Coqueiros, Bissau, Guinea-Bissau

There were 29 in the end. 29?! For 5 Euros in Europe you’ll be lucky to get 6 oysters. The challenge to open was as good as the green spicy sauce to eat them with. It took me TWO hours to eat all of the oysters. Devoured in a quirky cool bar and I was proud I did it.

Friday’s Featured Food: Spicy Atlantic Oysters at Coqueiros, Bissau, Guinea-Bissau

Friday’s Featured Food: Spicy Atlantic Oysters at Coqueiros, Bissau, Guinea-Bissau

I’d finish my beer early so for the last part of the oyster seeking, I was on a caipirinha.

Friday’s Featured Food: Spicy Atlantic Oysters at Coqueiros, Bissau, Guinea-Bissau

A spicy one too. I finally whittled them down, eating every single oyster in the pack.

Friday’s Featured Food: Spicy Atlantic Oysters at Coqueiros, Bissau, Guinea-Bissau

Friday’s Featured Food: Spicy Atlantic Oysters at Coqueiros, Bissau, Guinea-Bissau

Guinea-Bissau had been incredibly good for value here. 29 oysters for 5 Euros, with spicy sauce? All were delicious!!! I later met Juan and Isabel the restaurant owners who had known I was eating the oysters and were happy to see me happy.

With Juan

With the staff

I had another cocktail before heading back into the heart of Bissau and I also was in this very same bar on my final night in Bissau, where I wrote a book chapter and some poetry, in the quirky art part out the back. I will cover Coqueiros in another post, I also slept at Pensao Creola in this city.

Here are the details of Oysters at Coqueiros in Bissau, Guinea-Bissau:

https://www.facebook.com/coqueirosbissau/

Here are some videos from my time eating Oysters in Coqueiros, Bissau, Guinea-Bissau:

(to be added – WiFi is slow)