The people of Benin ate and drank the best. The common diet was rich in beef, lamb, chicken, and yams pounded into fufu and people enjoyed salted smoked or dried fish. Also on the tables one found and abundance of bananas and beans along with wine and a brandy like drink. The king, lords, and governors provide for the poor putting them to work as a way of providing for them and as a result there were no beggars in urban or rural Benin.