African, Caribbean and Surinamese Food Terms Glossary: Shaki, Abodi, Ponmo, Bokoto, Bakkeljauw, Makayabu and More
This glossary defines the African, Caribbean and Surinamese food terms people search for most across Europe. Ponmo is cow skin (Yoruba). Shaki is beef tripe. Abodi is beef reed, the cow's small intestine. Bokoto is cow feet. Bakkeljauw is salted, dried fish. Makayabu is the same salted-fish family, named for the Congolese kitchen. Each entry runs two or three sentences, with the dishes that pull the product and the supply terms a store owner needs to order it.
How to use this glossary
Most of these words name the same product. One community calls cow skin ponmo, the next calls it kpomo, a third calls it wele. Same item on the pallet. We kept the brand and trade names in their original spelling, the way a shopper or a store owner types them into a search bar, because translating them throws away both the search and the meaning.
Every term gets a short definition you can quote, the language or community behind it, and where it sits at the table. When one product carries several names we group them, so you can match what a customer asks for to what is sitting in your freezer. Beef offal comes first, then salted and dried fish, then the Surinaamse and Antillean range, then the dishes that pull demand, and last the trade words you meet when you order in bulk.
Ratouli Foods is an EU-approved processor in Volendam, the Netherlands. EU approval number NL208262EG, working under HACCP. We make and ship most of the products below to stores, tokos, restaurants and wholesalers across the EU and the UK. For the salted-fish lines, our sister brand Ratouli Seafood handles the grades and formats.
Beef offal terms
These are the cuts that move in African and Caribbean stores across Europe. The same animal part travels under several names. Match the name to the cut and you stock one supplier instead of chasing each word on its own.
Shaki
Shaki is beef tripe, the lining of the cow's stomach, sold in English-language stores as towel tripe or honeycomb tripe. Yoruba cooks call it shaki, sometimes spelled saki. It is the base of Nigerian pepper soup and goes into assorted-meat stews and the dish called roundabout. We ship it cleaned, scalded and frozen, from 1kg consumer packs up to frozen cartons for stores.
Abodi
Abodi is beef reed, the cow's small intestine, also sold as cow reed or large intestine. It is chewy and carries flavour well, which is why cooks rate it in roundabout and pepper soup for the way it holds a sauce. English-language stores usually label it beef reed. Yoruba cooks call it abodi.
Ponmo (and its synonyms)
Ponmo is cow skin, the singed and softened hide eaten as a meat in West African cooking. The same product goes by kpomo or pomo across Nigeria, wele in Ghana (Akan and Twi), canda in Cameroon and Sierra Leone, kplo in Ivorian and Congolese French, and kanda in Cameroonian Pidgin English. In plain English it is cow skin, cow hide or beef skin. Two finishes: brown, singed over flame and smoky, and white, scalded and mild. Stores often print several names on one pack because buyers use them interchangeably.
Bokoto
Bokoto is cow feet, also sold as cow foot or cow leg. It is full of collagen, so it sets a stock to a gel, and that is what carries nkwobi and bokoto pepper soup. We singe it before freezing, so the skin is edible along with the gelatinous meat around the bone.
Cow ears
Cow ears, also called beef ears, are a cartilaginous cut sold as a pepper-soup cut. They cook down soft with a light bite and show up in soups and assorted-meat dishes. They run from 1kg consumer packs up to 10kg cartons, the range where home demand meets store demand.
Salted and dried fish terms
Salted and dried fish is the strongest single pull across African, Caribbean and Surinamese stores. The words below often point to the same fish, salted and named for a different kitchen.
Bakkeljauw
Bakkeljauw is salted, dried fish, the anchor fish of the Surinaamse and Antillean table. Cooks desalt it and build it into dishes like heri heri and broodje bakkeljauw. It sells heel (whole), in moten (pieces) and as filet, in consumer packs and in 5kg and 10kg cartons for stores. Batjauw is the same product, different spelling.
Makayabu
Makayabu is salted fish for the Congolese and Central African kitchen, sold in Belgium and France as poisson sale. The word traces back to the Portuguese bacalhau. It is the same salted-fish family as Bakkeljauw, served grilled or stewed with pondu and rice, and it usually ships in 9 to 10kg cartons for stores.
Stockfish
Stockfish is unsalted fish dried in cold air until it goes hard. It is central to Nigerian and Ghanaian cooking, where it deepens egusi soup and stews, and cooks soak it long to soften it before use. It is a pan-EU wholesale line, sold by grade and size.
Saithe and pollock
Saithe and pollock are the trade species behind much of the salted fish above. When a diaspora name like Bakkeljauw or makayabu lands in the cold store, the fish underneath is usually salted saithe or salted pollock. Knowing the species lets a buyer compare grades and salting across suppliers. Ratouli Seafood carries the grades and the formats.
Surinaamse and Antillean terms
This is the freezer set a Surinaamse toko runs on. The worst family drives the counter and the freezer. The offal names below are the Dutch words home cooks type into search.
Vleesworst
Surinaamse vleesworst is a spiced, smoked sausage, eaten hot off the counter or warmed at home. It is the toko's everyday hardloper. Ratouli's worst is made with 100% halal ingredients, 100% chicken, no pork.
Bloedworst
Surinaamse bloedworst is the darker, richer sausage in the same family, served sliced and warmed. It sits next to vleesworst in the freezer and on the worstplankje.
Kippenworst
Kippenworst is the chicken sausage in the worst family, lighter than vleesworst and a steady everyday seller. It is made with 100% halal ingredients, 100% chicken, no pork.
Fladder
Fladder is a Surinaamse beef delicacy, a thin layered cut of beef tripe from the flat-leaf part of the stomach, stewed soft. It is niche but loyal in tokos, and a separate SKU from the worst family.
Zoutvlees
Zoutvlees is salted beef, cured for keeping and cooked into stews and one-pot dishes such as heri heri. In the Surinaamse kitchen it plays the salted-protein role alongside Bakkeljauw.
Dish terms that drive demand
Store owners stock to dishes, not just to cuts. These are the dishes that pull the products above off the shelf, which makes them the search terms behind the demand.
Nkwobi
Nkwobi is a spiced cow-foot dish from eastern Nigeria, served warm in a wooden mortar with a thick, gelatinous sauce. It is the main reason bokoto (cow feet) sells, often paired with cow skin (ponmo).
Heri heri
Heri heri is a Surinaamse-Creole dish of boiled cassava, sweet potato and plantain with salted fish (Bakkeljauw), egg and kouseband. It is tied closely to Keti Koti, and it is one of the dishes that keeps Bakkeljauw and zoutvlees moving.
Moksi alesi
Moksi alesi is Surinaamse mixed rice, cooked in one pot with salted fish or meat, vegetables and seasoning. It is an everyday dish that draws on Bakkeljauw, zoutvlees and the worst family.
Pom
Pom is a baked Surinaamse dish of grated pomtajer root with chicken and citrus, a festive centrepiece. It anchors a toko's wider Surinaamse range and brings shoppers in for the full basket.
Trade and supply terms
These are the words on the buying side. A store owner ordering from an EU supplier meets all five. The table lays them out.
| Term | What it means | Why it matters to a buyer |
|---|---|---|
| DAP | Delivered At Place. The supplier delivers to your door and arranges the transport. | You take the goods at your shop. We handle the freight and the cross-border paperwork, so there is no border friction on your side, the UK after Brexit included. |
| HACCP | Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points, the food-safety system a processor works under. | It tells a buyer the production is controlled and documented from intake to dispatch. |
| NL208262EG | The EU approval number of the Ratouli Foods plant in the Netherlands. | It marks us as an EU-approved processor, traceable on the pack. Buyers screen on it before they order. |
| Cold chain | Holding frozen goods at a steady low temperature from production through to delivery. | It protects quality and shelf life on frozen offal and salted fish, all the way to your freezer. |
| MOQ | Minimum order quantity, the smallest order a supplier accepts. | A pallet-level MOQ with DAP suits a single shop that cannot take a full container. |
Pack sizes run from 1kg consumer packs through 5kg and 10kg cartons up to full pallets. A small shop can start at carton level and grow into pallets, with DAP delivery to NL, BE, DE, FR, ES, IT, PT and the UK.
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