Restaurant
Our chef, Pape Niang, who had been a chef for over 20 years in a prestigious hotel in Dakar, has retired to Djilor to work with us in creating a menu to meet all tastes. He can cater for large and small events, as well as lunches and dinners. Visitors come here just for the food as attested by the need to make reservations well in advance in the high season !
At the Source aux Lamantins, several restoration areas will allow you to fulfill all your expectations. Every Sunday a buffet is served on the pontoon where you will have the opportunity to taste the local products.
We apply HACCP standards for catering and hotels. We cook in front of you and the kitchen is open to the restaurant. Thank you for informing us if you have a particular diet ex: vegetarian, an allergy or other.
Senegalese Cuisine
Now let’s take a look at Senegalese dishes through tradition. la tradition
The Yaboy
Passed down from mother to daughter, the recipes for Senegalese cuisine are an important part of a young woman’s education. Do you know why the yaboy is full of bones? Yaboy was the best and most beautiful fish, but he was arrogant and boasted of his popularity, so he was punished by being given many little bones and therefore often discarded on the beaches. Here we travel through the Senegalese traditional dishes.
The Miss
Each year before the winter harvest, the Serer celebrate Miss, a collective hunting ritual around Djilor. At dawn the men leave donned in camouflage (made from foliage and tattoos) with their dogs. They spend all day hunting by setting fire to the brush to draw out the game. Returning to the village at nightfall, they are greeted by the women, children, and elders, who wait at the edge of the village singing and beating tom-toms. On their arrival to the outskirts of the village they must tap their sticks, make a wish, and take a leaf of the sacred tree, and this leaf will be mixed with the seeds and presented to the champion. After which they are served dishes prepared by the women of their family, including cakes, nougat, and sugared drinks.
Later, after jovial commentary and jokes about the men’s hunt, the whole village makes a procession and then sings initiation songs on the village square. Dancers then point out that the earth is feminine and needs to be fertilized, followed by a speech by the sathiour, who pours libations in the sanctuary of Djidiack Selbé Faye with the Diaraf, or village chief, before everyone goes home to eat mboum or nebeday. The takings from the hunt are shared by all of the village families, and bark taken from the sacred tree is mixed with the seeds at planting.
The Yobal
When you attend a party, it is fashionable to offer a “little something” for the children, such as fruit, donuts, or even couscous. If you stay with friends, they will prepare yobal for you upon your departure. At La Source aux Lamantins, we offer a yobal to our guests every Sunday.
The Yekeul
In the Senegalese tradition the Kilifeu, or head of household, moves only rarely. From time to time and during certain holidays, especially Tamkharit, or the Islamic New Year, it is fashionable to send him couscous dishes prepared in his honor. This yekeul must be beautiful and good. Girls from family are sent with assorted dishes accompanied by the most beautiful table linens. It is also a way to share religious holidays with relatives and friends who do not have the same faith, contributing to social cohesion and interreligious dialogue. The hostess who receives the yekeul should then clean the dishes and fill them with a symbolic “gift” and give “Pass”. A small amount of money for the girl on her return home.