Thiebou guinar (Cheh-boo ghee-Nar), Senegalese rice with chicken, traveled well — from Pikine to a picnic table in Morningside Park — and tasted great. If only it weren't squeezed by a picnic container.
Compare the presentation of thiebou djeun (Jen), Senegal's beloved combo of rice and fish (from a dine-in visit, before). One measure of this dish is the variety of its vegetables; here they include cabbage, carrot, cassava, and okra, all stewed in the same tomatoey fish broth that colors the grains of broken rice. The fish itself — this day, portions of kingfish — is directly above the chile pepper and lime. A second measure is the inclusion of xoon (pronounced, I believe, something like Hone). When most everything on the plate has been stewed and softened, it's good to mix in some crispy bits of rice from the bottom of the pot.
Previously: What is domoda (Dough-mo-dah), the Gambian national dish, doing in a Senegalese restaurant? One glance at a map of West Africa refreshes the memory: Except for its narrow coastline on the Atlantic, Gambia is surrounded by Senegal. Little surprise, then, that a sauce very similar to the larger country's mafe should win admirers on both sides of the border.
Like mafe, which is also served as part of the rotating lunchtime menu at Pikine, domoda is thickened with peanut butter. From the recipes I've found, however, its base seems to rely more on tomatoes and not at all on smoked or dried fish. This domoda yap, featuring lamb, sported on-the-bone hunks of tender meat as well as carrot, potato, some sort of pumpkin or squash, and the obligatory hot pepper (in this case, green). Spooned over a big plate of white rice, this could be your new favorite cold-weather stew.
Pikine (Pee-keen)
243 West 116th St. (Frederick Douglass-Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Blvds.), Manhattan
646-922-7015
www.Facebook.com/pages/Pikine-Senegalese-Restaurant/1025372937550014
