In addition to coffee and tea, the hand-drawn menu board at The Monkey Cup also depicts a weekend-only roster of Venezuelan arepas. I'm told that the shredded-chicken "reyna pepiada" is the most popular, but on the day of my visit it was the prosciutto-heavy "el younas" that had sold out. Shown: the modest, black and white bean and cheese of "la domino."
The Monkey Cup
1965 Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Blvd. (West 118th-West 119th Sts.), Manhattan
646-665-3906
www.TheMonkeyCup.com
Vegetable combo over injera, from a new restaurant on the site of the former Zoma. Same owner and, I was told, much the same menu as at the Lalibela that closed on East 29th nearly six years ago; different chef. More beets, please!
Lalibela Ethiopian Restaurant
2084 Frederick Douglass Blvd. (at West 113th St.), Manhattan
917-409-1609
www.Facebook.com/LalibelaRestaurantNYC
Black rice pudding waffles framing black rice pudding ice cream, a one-day collaboration with Mikey Likes It. After hot waffles met cold ice cream, a spoon came in handy very quickly; so did towelettes, too.
Fieldtrip
109 Malcolm X Blvd. (115th-116th Sts.), Manhattan
917-639-3919
www.FieldtripNYC.com
Closed Sunday
Three takeout plates from this excellent Senegalese restaurant in West Harlem: yassa yapp, lamb smothered in onion sauce; and thiebou djeun (Cheh-boo Jen; immediately below), the national dish of Senegal, in both its red and white versions. These are prepared on alternating days, and worthy of multiple picnics.
When I first set eyes on Keur Coumba nearly a decade ago, I'd noted the name "Kilimanjaro," called out on the awning, perhaps in affection for the "Roof of Africa"; worldwide, several Senegalese restaurants are named after that Tanzanian mountain. The Latina manager didn't know. She did, however, explain that the owner wanted some Caribbean food to complement his West African chow, given the local demographics, hence the two different takeout menus, one Senegalese, one Dominican. She also acknowledged that both menus conformed to West African dietary preferences. Keur Coumba might have been the only restaurant in town that served Dominican cooking entirely free of pork.
The takeout equivalent of "hat hair" means good value for the money — my container of djollof rice, egusi with spinach, and fried whiting was unlovely, but packed full. The cuisine at this West African steam-table restaurant is largely Ghanaian but also incorporates some dishes from Nigeria and Guinea, a counterman told me during a visit several years ago; I recall a little soul food, too. The motto "where the food sticks to your soul" might also beckon to a congregation a half-block to the west, at the Presbyterian Church of Ghana.
Previously, when dining in (and shown below): fish and djollof rice; okra sauce.
Accra Restaurant
2065 Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Blvd. (123rd-124th Sts.), Manhattan
917-504-3098
www.Facebook.com/AccraRestaurantHarlem
Also at 2041 Davidson Ave. (at West Burnside Ave.), University Heights, Bronx
718-584-8500
www.Facebook.com/AccraRestaurant
Provisions: cabbage, black-eyed peas, and collard greens from the self-serve buffet (gloves as well as mask required). Previously, in a more exuberant spirit (and shown below): candied yams, chicken gizzards, collards, and mac 'n' cheese; banana pudding.
Manna's Soul Food Restaurant
2331 Frederick Douglass Blvd. (125th-126th Sts.), Manhattan
212-749-9084
www.Facebook.com/pages/Mannas-Restaurant/222259657973436
"Free food" has been available for about two months from this outdoor refrigerator, which is stocked by community contributions as well as the market. Other handwritten signs announce "comida gratis" and encourage visitors to "take what you need, leave what you don't" and to "take food, leave food, be well, be safe."
Ralph & Nash Deli
352 West 116th St. (Manhattan-Morningside Aves.), Manhattan
212-666-4508
In migrating from French Indochina to French West Africa, the Vietnamese spring rolls called nem dispensed with pork. My batch featured beef, (scant) shrimp, glass noodles, and vegetables. Irregularities in the wrappers, especially along the seams, suggest that these nem might have been freshly rolled as well as fried.
Previously: The subject of many recipes and nearly as many spellings, thiebou djeun (Cheh-boo Jen) is the national dish of Senegal. It combines rice (thieb, in Wolof) and fish (djeun) with vegetables that are boiled in the fish broth. So, too, is the underlayer of broken rice, which might be tomato-based and red, as shown here, or white. Patisserie des Ambassades offers both the red and the white, on alternating days, except for Sunday.
This rendition, featuring red snapper, was rather shy of vegetables; apart from cabbage, it included just two fingers of okra and a split log of cassava, plus a less-than-fiery Scotch bonnet. But at one edge of the plate, to its credit, the thiebou djeun also sported xoon (pronounced, roughly, Hone), bits of crunchy rice that are so beloved in many cultures.
Patisserie des Ambassades
2200 Frederick Douglass Blvd. (118th-119th Sts.), Manhattan
212-666-0078
www.Facebook.com/PatisserieDesAmbassades
One measure of the Senegalese national dish thiebou jen (Cheh-boo Jen, "rice with fish") is the variety of its vegetables. My plate sported carrot, cabbage, cassava, red and green bell pepper, and tomato; a generous count would also include the Scotch bonnet pepper and the wedge of lime. All but the Scotch bonnet and lime would have been stewed with the fish — this day, tilapia, other times, reportedly, snapper — and the liquid would have been reserved for cooking the rice.
Another measure is the rice itself. For their cheb, some New York restaurants use jasmine rice or another long-grain variety; Chez Maty et Sokhna employs com tam, the broken rice of Vietnam (like Senegal, once a French colony). When cooked, com tam becomes softer than intact rice prepared to the same recipe, and it readily takes on other flavors. Even as I dug away at the ample mound on my plate, deliverymen rolled handcarts, piled with sacks of Vietnamese-branded broken rice, to the kitchen.
Also shown: thiebou yapp, a takeout plate "with lamb" that also sported mouthwatering onions; dibi, thin-sliced lamb cut cut every which way, bones and all, accompanied by mustard-dressed onions and golden fries; maffe yapp, sometimes called a "peanut-butter stew" of lamb, carrots, and potatoes, predictably, almost relentlessly heavy; and the condiments at each table. The menu also includes omelettes, burgers, penne pasta, apple pie, and other "American" dishes at breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Chez Maty et Sokhna (previously known as Keur Sokhna)
2249 Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Blvd. (West 132nd-West 133rd Sts.), Manhattan
212-368-5005
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.
Thank you!
