Many West African meals consist of a starch and a protein-enhanced sauce or soup. The first, often served on the side but sometimes deposited directly in the main bowl, is employed to scoop up the second. In matters of texture, some people new to these cuisines are put off by fufu, a thick paste of cassava generally blended with green plantain. During a group lunch at Akwaaba ("welcome," in the Akan language of Ghana), our yellowish wad of fufu sank down and spread out under its own weight. That's typical.
Akwaaba also serves banku (shown, in the first photo, to the fore). A lightly fermented blend of corn and cassava doughs, banku offers the slightly sour, appealing aroma of rising bread. An added appeal, for some diners, is a much firmer texture. A ball of banku tends to remain a ball until acted on by some outside force — applied, as you've gathered, by fingers.
Also shown: two stews, one peanut-based and one thickened with okra, plumped with off-cuts of beef and goat respectively; and two plate meals, the first featuring jollof rice, the second named for the combo of rice and beans called wakye (Wah-chay). For my photo, a more attractive focal point than the wakye itself was the slice of fried porgy that sat at the front of the plate, though not for long.
Akwaaba Restaurant
604 Parkside Ave. (Bedford-Rogers Aves.), Prospect Lefferts Gardens, Brooklyn
347-985-2588
www.Facebook.com/Akwaaba-Restaurant-312568842411918
