This chalky West African confection, one of several nibbles on offer for breaking the Ramadan fast, is made from milk, sugar, and bouye, the fruit of the baobab tree. While still in the pod, bouye pulp dries into bite-size fragments, hence the nickname pain de singe — monkey bread. The flavor is tangy, slightly sour, but without the edge of citrus; for more of a bite, there's a ginger-added variation, too.
Previously: Horchata isn't uniquely Mexican, and it needn't be made from rice. It's best-known as a cinnamon-scented taqueria quaff, but horchata has a lengthy Old World history, too. In Valencia, Spain, the drink is often prepared with chufa, also known as the tuber of the yellow nutsedge, the tigernut, and tionkon (chee-On-kon). These were harvested in Mali.
Tionkon horchata is a breeze to prepare, provided you can wait half a day for the tubers to soak and soften. (This recipe worked well; ignore the silly folk etymology.) You can also chew on individual tubers without soaking them, though a rinse seems in order. They're a bit sweet, and may remind you of almonds.
At bottom: After a brief look at the work of the whining bandsaw behind the butcher counter, I left this shop with the makings of my evening's dessert. Thiakry (Chok-ree), a.k.a. degue (Deh-gway), is millet couscous that's also the basis for a namesake West African pudding. The package below was imported from Senegal; after soaking the grains in boiling water, steaming them, and adding milk, sugar, and sour cream, I has something passingly similar to the thiakry at the former Guinean restaurant Mariam.
New Harlem Halal Meat
2142 Frederick Douglass Blvd. (115th-116th Sts.), Manhattan
646-698-5345
