Stargazer: Afrikando Afrikando

January 25, 2009

Afrikando Afrikando

Catchy post title, isn't it? It's the name of the Senegalese restaurant where we ate dinner and shared moments of hilarity last night. Here was our menu: Plaintains for appetizer, Mafe, Yassa au poulet, Thiebu Djen, Poisson Braise--with Bouye, Tamarind and Jasmine tea to drink, as well as Thiakry and Pineapple/Coconut ice cream for dessert.This won't mean anything to you unless you check out the dinner menu on my link! Afrikando Afrikando is a little hole in the wall restaurant in an iffy part of south Seattle. However, we found the food and drink interesting and mostly delicious.(but no booze since the people who own it are strict Muslims)The Mafe peanut/tomato sauce was too bland, while the fried plaintains were a bit too mushy for our tastes. We adored the fruit drinks though and my jasmine tea was wonderful. (Note to the chef Jacques: Please turn up the heat in your restaurant! We are not in Senegal here.) The priceless moment of the evening came when our food arrived; I am so mad that I didn't have my camera out because...
this was my husband's Poisson Braise. And his face, OH HIS FACE when it arrived! I'm sure a photo of any of us would have shown the same look of shock and disbelief. I really don't give my husband enough credit; once he figured out how to eat it(slide it off the bones), he deemed it utterly delicious and ate every scrap.
But I didn't like that dead fish looking at me, and was very relieved that my Yassa au poulet(chicken) was much more mainstream. We all laughed so hard about Mr. Stargazer's "fish face" that we nearly fell off our seats.
Boyfriend D. didn't like his Mafe; after he had already ordered it, I remembered that in the otherwise glowing reviews of Afrikando Afrikando, the reviewers had disliked the sauce also. Oops. Ashley's Thiebu Djen with sea bass was quite yummy though; it seems strange to see her eating meat again. And what was really weird was that in the car on the way to the restaurant we said exactly the same thing at the same time THREE TIMES. You see why I'll miss her so much. *sniff*

January 25, 2009 | Permalink

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