Plate meals would be ready later. When I stopped by Ziana Bu in late morning, the restaurant was doing brisk business in koko and togbei, the Ghanaian equivalent of a coffee-and-donuts breakfast, but less sugary and more substantial. (And, in my case, on the house.) Togbei (toe-Bay) — the Ga name for what are better known by the Ashanti name bofrot (Beau-fruit) in other parts of Ghana — resemble Italian zeppole and Nigerian puff-puffs, though these were hardly puffy. In the first photo, four togbei are stacked like cannonballs; their crisp, oily shells were still too hot to handle.
Meantime, I sipped a little koko, which contains no coffee nor, for that matter, cocoa. This smoothly blended millet porridge does contain a kick, however, most notably from ginger but also from a touch of dried chile. Those flavors aren't particularly intense; even so, you might prefer to temper them with something comparatively sweet. The dense togbei, once they've cooled to the touch, are the perfect foil.
Ziana Bu African Restaurant
1006 Bergen St. (Shephard-Mapes Aves.), Newark, New Jersey
973-688-8761
Closed Monday