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Such dishes as collard greens, fried chicken, stewed okra, and hoppin’ john (black-eyed peas and rice) came from West Africa with unwilling immigrants on slave ships. West African fare has exerted a profound influence on America’s food culture. But new places have popped up to replace them, making our collection of West African restaurants better than ever - a hopeful light in a dark time. Yes, we’ve lost some important places in the last nine months, including Medina (Senegalese in downtown Brooklyn), Ebe Ye Yie (Ghanaian in Fordham Heights), and Chez Adja (Nigerian and Senegalese in Staten Island). Samuelsson seems to be following the accepted wisdom and introducing a somewhat westernised menu, whereas the food at Africa Kine is unabashedly African.The pandemic appears to have dealt a softer blow to West African restaurants than to many others, mainly because a wide swath of them always depended on carryout for a substantial part of their business, while the dining rooms often functioned as clubhouses for homesick immigrants. There is also an important difference in their culinary approaches.

The former being in the vibrantly hip meatpacking district, and the latter near several immaculate West African food shops that stock intriguing grains, sauces and spices, and the bustling Malcolm Shabazz Harlem Market, a daily bazaar of sophisticated African handcrafts, most especially stylish clothes and jewelry. If there is contrast between the stylish Merkato55 and the very authentic Africa Kine, so is there in the neighbourhoods. Senegal's national dish, Thiebu Djeun, is a rich stew of fish (and sometimes chicken) mixed with enticing broken grains of jasmine rice and vegetables, but might be a bit harder for the uninitiated to enjoy, given the dried fish seasoning that adds acridly fishy (but authentic) overtones.

Here, Senegalese dishes are traditionally rustic, with the most accessible to novice palates being the lamb mafé in a rosy peanut sauce and the sautéed chicken yassa in a sunny lemon and onion sauce. More recent immigrants, mainly from West Africa - the Ivory Coast, Senegal and Nigeria - are now opening modest, inexpensive restaurants, one of the more ambitious exceptions being Africa Kine in Harlem where there is music at night in a simple attractive setting. Here, as in many of the world's large cities, some small, distinctly African restaurants have been around for many years, especially from Morocco and Ethiopia. With so many complex flavours, the best beverage is cold Kenyan beer and, for dessert, the restorative citrus salad, a rainbow of oranges from blood-red to gold to pale lemon yellow. The velvety Ethiopian chicken stew - doro wat - is a savoury blend of meat in an aromatic sauce, and other intriguing choices are the Nigerian shrimp and-bean fritters, akara, the silken barley tabbouleh and several types of meat and tuna tartars. Service can be slow but the reward is a changing pan-African menu that starts in the north with Moroccan hummus, couscous, oysters spiked with hot harissa sauce, and merguez sausage down to the venison sosaties - skewered meats - of South Africa and to Mozambique's spicy grilled shrimp piri-piri that are delicious but could use more fiery zappings. The settings on the bar-lounge lower floor, as well as the comfortable upstairs dining room, are atmospherically done up in woodsy tones of black, brown, gray and tan with huge baskets for chandeliers and stunning, moody photographs of African faces printed on gauzy curtains. That inspired his remarkable restaurant in the meatpacking district, Merkato 55, named after the huge open-air market in Ethiopia's capital, Addis Ababa. Born in Ethiopia and raised in Sweden, this inventive chef, having already earned high marks with the New York restaurant, Aquavit, where he oversees Scandinavian-informed fare, became inspired after culinary tours of Africa for his cookbook, The Soul of a New Cuisine. Gradually, the eye adjusts so does the palate.Īll of which is why Marcus Samuelsson may well go down in gastronomic history as the father of the new African cuisine in America. This is not unlike the practice of fashion designers who, inspired by the dress of an ethnic minority incorporate symbols into contemporary clothing without suggesting that women wear literal - authentic - folk costumes. The more adventurous may then be tempted to try the real McCoy. When introducing an obscure, exotic cuisine, traditional seasonings and textures, it is generally felt that flavours have to be tweaked to recognisable taste paradigms so they can be understood and accepted.