West African cuisine tastes as West African cuisine tastes…and if you don’t like it, you better acquire the taste or go eat somewhere else. (Might I recommend Oh, Falafel! just down the street?)
But what is it and what does it taste like?
Hidden in the back of a strip mall just off of 2100 South, Edo Kitchen looks and feels like something right off the streets of Nigeria or Ghana. The tables are of the wobbly, folding type, covered with an inexpensive white plastic. The walls are painted in yellows, reds and greens. The lighting is low, mostly for lack of lights, and comes from natural lighting through the smallish windows. The proprietor is a round, smiling character who is eager to please.
Looking around at the “restaurant on the cheap,” I couldn’t help but feel like I was in an African country.
The food: definitely a departure from what I am used to. I ordered the Egusi Soup with Fufu, which the proprietor called yam. It was served in the styrofoam bowls that you can pick up at any grocery store, and not the expensive type. It was a slightly spicy soup with spinach and some kind of meat described as having shrimp and beef. I liked the flavor. I didn’t like the meat. Also, it was very oily.
The fufu? Starch city. It was giant blob of white starch. Designed to be dipped in the soup, I tried it. A few times. But I couldn’t get past my western predilections that I was dipping dough into the soup (piping hot dough, at that). I had a hard time enjoying it.
Do you like West African cuisine? Then I think you’ll enjoy this. My lunch partner, who has had it before from other West Africans, says it is authentic.
Looking for a more conventional (and safe) meal? Then pick something a little less “ethnic.” This isn’t the place for you.
After the Bar 