By Daniel Hautzinger | wwfw
If you go to Senegal, yassa is very, very popular,” says Madieye Gueye. “People who go to Senegal say it’s what they remember the most, because it’s easy to remember: yassa!”
It’s not surprising then, that when Gueye opened a Senegalese restaurant in Chicago in 2004, he called it Yassa African Restaurant, after that memorable dish.
Continue reading “A Memorable Senegalese Chicken Dish from Yassa African Restaurant”
By Andrew Waterman | Saltwire
As a boy growing up in Nigeria, Olusola Adeyemi dreamed of one day owning a store.
But he never imagined it would be on Ropewalk Lane.
“I’ve tried so many businesses, but this idea came in 2020,” he said.
Olusola, his wife, Bolanle, and their five children were living in Toronto when the government-mandated closure of businesses due to the COVID-19 pandemic left him without work.
Continue reading “‘It feels like I’m home’: Wandebo African Store in St. John’s servicing new Canadians and curious locals”
By Ebimo Amungo
Sam Osemene and his team must be doing something right. A steady stream of Uber Eats and Door Dash delivery drivers strolled into his restaurant to pick up orders for clients just as plates of an assortment of African dishes were being served to dine-in clients.
Seated on different tables were a potpourri of African immigrants that included Congolese, Cameroonians, Ghanaians, Nigerians and Liberians eating and chatting over beer about their work and life in Austin, Texas.
Continue reading “Sam Osemene’s place is not just an African market, it is a meeting place for African immigrants in Austin, Texas.”
By Ebimo Amungo
Jollof rice may be the rage but at The Green Place, fufu is the food that is ordered the most by Americans.
Joy Green, owner of this Nigerian restaurant on Rockaway Avenue in Brooklyn, New York, gave this insight with a laud guffaw.
“They also order a lot of okra soup” she added laughing.
By Tim Carman | The Washington Post
Thin strips of beef, dusted with a formidable West African spice blend, are scattered atop a waxy sheet of “The American Times,” a faux newspaper whose motto is “All the News That Changes the World.” The slogan, an obvious riff on the Gray Lady’s 19th-century retort to yellow journalism, seems custom-made for Olumide Shokunbi and Spice Kitchen.
Shokunbi earned his stripes in the restaurant business at Chipotle Mexican Grill, rising to the level of general manager at a store in his native Bowie, Md. The chain left its mark on him, not so much with its approach to customization but with its big-tent philosophy.
By Taiwo Balogun | Okay Africa
Africans have been instrumental in shaping the cuisine of America and the rest of the world for centuries — from the slaves who were forced across the Atlantic and brought with them unique foods, culinary traditions, and technologies, to the later African American chefs, farmers, innovators, and businesses who have profoundly impacted the way we eat and think about food. The Africa Center’s exhibition, titled African/American: Making the Nation’s Table, curated by Dr. Jessica Harris, a leading expert on the culinary culture of the African diaspora, seeks to honor those individuals and their legacy.
Continue reading “Celebrating the African Influences in African American Cuisine”
By Simran Sethi | npr
For most people in the United States, coffee is synonymous with chains like Starbucks, or third wave cafes boasting Panamanian pour overs — not necessarily the continent of Africa.
But the place where coffee originated, and where the most diverse varieties of coffee thrive, is Ethiopia and South Sudan, as recently confirmed by a research team led by coffee genetics expert and president of the International Women’s Coffee Alliance Sarada Krishnan.
Continue reading “East Africa is responsible for America’s favorite morning brew”
By Todd A. Price | Mississippi Clarion Ledger
Sally Demba, 56, brought her family to the United States in 2007 from West Africa. For her new friends in America, she cooked food from her native Gambia. They told Demba she should have her own restaurant.
Last Saturday, Demba finally opened a restaurant, Sambou’s African Kitchen in Jackson, with her son, Joseph Sambou, 34, and her daughter, Bibian Sambou, 36.
Continue reading “Gambian immigrant’s restaurant brings spicy West African food to Jackson”
Makena Tarichia-Ambassa receives $25,000 in startup funding for her catering company, Out Of Africa
By Logan MacLean | Saltwire
Makena Tarichia-Ambassa’s cooking career started with a choice.Growing up on a coffee farm in Mikinduri, Kenya, she and her 10 siblings often had chores. Cooking, cleaning and tending the animals all had to be done — so did fertilizing the crops with maggot-filled manure.
Continue reading “P.E.I. chef looks forward to expanding business that celebrates her Kenyan culture”
By Derek Montague | Huddle Today
HALIFAX-In 2019, Mary Nkrumah opened her signature restaurant, Mary’s African Cuisine, on Barrington Street in the heart of downtown Halifax. It’s a prime location and, as its near-perfect online reviews have shown, a great place to dine.
But Nkrumah’s story begins decades earlier, in Ghana, where she grew up. Her childhood was filled with two things that would be defining features throughout her life: delicious food and empowering female entrepreneurship.
Continue reading “From Ghana To Barrington Street: The Remarkable Story Of Mary’s African Cuisine”
By Richard Fowler | Forbes
Whether they are from the Caribbean or the African continent, Black immigrants have remarkably impacted the growth and diversity of the United States. These immigrants, many arriving in the U.S. with flavor pallets tuned to their home country, have made America’s main course options full of flavor, with staple grains, well-seasoned meats and seafood, and of course some spice.
Continue reading “Has Black Immigrant Food Become America’s New Main Course?”
I must introduce you to an old family friend of mine: moi moi. It’s a simple dish of humble ingredients: steamed black-eyed peas, mostly, with a few garnishes tucked in for flash. But food, like other aspects of culture, is more than the sum of its parts. Moi moi is one of the ways I found home, and the first dish that I thought of when I was asked to produce this series on African diasporic foods.
Continue reading “She forgot her childhood in Nigeria. Then she ate moi moi at Charlotte’s Cooking Pot”
After CEO Toyin Kolawole noticed there wasn’t adequate representation for African-inspired flavors on U.S. grocery shelves, she began pitching her products at trade shows and to buyers.
By Lillianna Byington’s | FoodDive
Continue reading “Toyin Kolawole | Iya Foods founder leverages her Nigerian roots to tap into a new market”
By G.A. Benton | Columbus Monthly
Few new eateries embodied the spirit of Columbus in 2020 like Afra Grill on the city’s North Side. It’s a pandemic-practical operation that’s inexpensive, offers an easy online ordering system, a handy drive-thru window and a sparkling dining room with a starkly impactful design scheme.
Continue reading “Afra Grill | A place for Somali gourmet, with characteristics of Indian, Mediterranean, and Ethiopian food.”
By ARIT JOHN | Los Angeles Times
Joeneen Hull had never tried fufu, but for weeks the 31-year-old nail artist watched mukbangs of people dipping warm chunks of starchy dough into rich, spicy soups.
“One day, I was just like, ‘you know what? Today’s gonna be the day’,” she said. “I’m craving it so bad. I don’t even know what this food tastes like and I’m craving it.”
Continue reading “West African fufu is the latest viral food on TikTok”
by S. Fambul | The Counter
We West Africans take our regional dish—and communal celebration—seriously. When I remember the days when an unmasked face at the bank did not frighten me, I cannot help but to think of the ways I have called my family outside of their names in the act of love.
Continue reading “My auntie’s jollof rice, and other things Covid-19 stole from me”
When it comes to food, those who aren’t lucky enough to call New Jersey home think the Garden State is only good for a few things. Pizza, bagels, and that beloved salty breakfast meat are our calling cards (and we would add top-notch Italian and fresher-than-fresh seafood, too). But beyond the Parmigiana and pork roll is a world of cuisines some might not expect. Ethiopian, Ghanaian, Nigerian, Moroccan, Caribbean, Southern and soul food: These are the cuisines of the African diaspora.
Continue reading “New Jersey restaurants: Where to taste the foods of the African diaspora”
More Americans are craving the vibrant tastes of Pan-African cuisine
By Jim Beckerman, and Shaylah Brown, NorthJersey.com
Continue reading “African food is the latest — and oldest — cuisine”
“We don’t say a dish is spicy — we say it has pepper.” The recipe writer Yewande Komolafe, who grew up in Lagos and found herself searching for the heat and flavor of Nigerian food in New York, chooses the dishes that define the cuisine for her.
By Yewande Komolafe | New York Times
Continue reading “Yewande Komolafe’s 10 Essential Nigerian Recipes”
By Nick Marino | The New York Times
Nigerian cuisine revolves around starches, stews and soups served in celebratory portions. “We don’t sit down and have light bites of food,” says Niyi Okuboyejo, the Lagos-born fashion designer behind the New York-based men’s wear brand Post-Imperial.
Continue reading “Niyi Okuboyejo | A Designer’s Endlessly Adaptable Nigerian Stew”
By Shoshi Parks | 7 x 7
In Marrakech, Morocco, Mourad Lahlou’s life revolved around family meals. Three times a day, without fail, grandparents and parents and children came together to eat and argue and eat some more.
Continue reading “Mourad Lahlou’s roast chicken puts a Moroccan accent on a holiday bird for intimate Covid-era dinners”
by Julie Zhou | Eater Twin Cities
In addition to the abundance of Ethiopian and Eritrean eateries along St. Paul’s University and Snelling, the Twin Cities are home to a wealth of restaurants reflecting cuisines from other communities within the East African diaspora: milky, fragrant cups of shaah from Somalia, seared beef suqaar, tender, puffed flats of Yemeni mulawah.
Here are six favorites across Minneapolis and St. Paul.
Continue reading “Six Fantastic East African Eateries to Dig Into in the twin cities”
By MARK KENNEDY | AP
NEW YORK (AP) — If anyone asks chef Marcus Samuelsson what African food taste like, he has a ready answer: Have you ever had barbeque? Rice? Collard greens? Okra? Coffee?
“All of that food comes from Africa, has its roots in Africa,” says the Ethiopian Swedish writer and restaurateur. “Everyone has had African American dishes, whether they know it or not.”
Continue reading “Chef Marcus Samuelsson celebrates the variety of Black food”
BY ELISE TAYLOR | Vogue
“Grandmothers are the ultimate home cooks,” says Hawa Hassan. That’s why, for her new cookbook with Julia Turshen, In Bibi’s Kitchen, she decided to make them the focus. Part cooking guide, part educational material, and part journalistic exercise, the book features the beloved recipes, and stories, of matriarchs from eight African countries that touch the Indian Ocean.
Continue reading “Hawa Hassan Shares the Spicy Somali Pasta Recipe From Her New Cookbook, ‘In Bibi’s Kitchen’”
By Dahlia Ghabour | Louisville Courier Journal
In the middle of the summer, a new specialty coffee shop opened in Louisville with little fanfare. Cousins Tar Molla and Kidest Getachew aren’t really about recognition — except for the detailed and expert way they make their coffee.
The pair, who immigrated from Ethiopia to the U.S. more than 10 years ago, opened Abol Cafe to share their love of coffee with Louisville.
Continue reading “‘Coffee is everything’ for this immigrant duo running Louisville’s new Ethiopian cafe”
by Kayla Stewart | Eater Houston
Jollof Rice King, a new destination for Nigerian cuisine, is just about ready to make its Houston debut. Located at 3833 Richmond Avenue, the exciting new addition to the city’s dining scene is set to open its doors on October 13, after multiple delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Continue reading “Tiffaney and Avo Odewale | Husband-and-wife team set to open Jollof Rice Destination in Houston”
By Kayla Stewart | GrubStreet
When Brittney Brothers first tried the South African staple known as biltong, she was surprised by the way it didn’t taste. It looks salty, tough, and chewy, like jerky and other cured meats. But biltong was more delicate. “The seasonings compliment the natural flavor of the beef,” she says. “And it was very tender, unlike anything I’ve tasted before.” For her, it became a point of fascination. And now, it’s a career.
Continue reading “New York Biltong Is a New South African Shop in NYC”
By MATTHEW KORFHAGETHE | VIRGINIAN-PILOT
You’d be forgiven if you didn’t notice Yendidi from the outside. The restaurant in Norfolk’s Norview Heights neighborhood is backed off of a flyby stretch of Chesapeake Boulevard, nestled into a mini-mall next to a church and a hair salon. Its parking lot amounts to a ribbon of rough pavement against the roadside.
Continue reading “Abena Oteng-Appiah | Some of the tastiest chicken you eat in Hampton Roads will be at Ghanaian restaurant Yendidi”
by Vinciane Ngomsi | Eater DC
The Ghanaian restaurant in Shaw has added a seafood okra stew and a minced lamb goat with yuca fries
Continue reading “West African Standby Appioo Reopens for Indoor Dining With Two New Dishes”
By Kitchen Butterfly | Food 52
I am my mother. In every line I speak, no, every word. Every sway of the hips. Every pot of fried rice hurriedly spooned into red Freezinhot coolers with flower motifs, full of blackened pieces of beef — not burnt, just colored by hot oil — and chicken, fried in groundnut oil so the fragrance of freshly roasted peanuts lingers sweet.
Continue reading “Nigerian fried rice taught me to love being like my mother”
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