I spent about six years of my life in Abidjan, the capital city, and Bouaké in, the second largest city to the north. Ivory Coast -- they prefer _Côte d'Ivoire -- is remarkable for its:
- Attieke. It's a cassava root which when pounded up into a kind of flour, is absolutely fantastic as a base for sauces, with fish, with tomato onion salads.
- Aloco. It's fried spicy plantain, and amazingly good with a bit of hot sauce. Other nearby countries make their versions of this, too.
- Farming. They are professional grade business farmers, with world class cacao and coffee plantations. Their pineapple factories produce high grade inexpensive pineapple juice and multiple derivatives.
- Zeze French. It's a colloquial street market version of French that's hilarious, inventive, and sassy. It was famously encouraged by the first president who protected a local TV show which used this kind of French to expose several national scandals and poke fun at officials and bureaucrats.
- Unity in National Language Choice. Despite two civil wars (2002-2011), the country is unique among Francophone nations for it's pride in speaking and using French as a national language of unification. My Ivorian friends explain how this was necessary due to no one ethnic group being large enough or powerful enough to dominate the others.
- High Literacy and Professionalism. Ivoirians are well educated, highly professional, industrious, and they are rightfully proud of their efforts to make their nation grow, improve, and become a West African power house.
- They have some wonderful tourist spots around Grand Bassam, San Pedro, and Man, to name a few worth checking out. Yamassoukro has some amazing architecture, cathedral, and expansive city planning due to the first president investing significant resources to develop his home town into an important city in Ivory Coast.
It's a great place with warm, fun, and friendly place.