Midtown Lunch

Bored of food from the European and American continents? Travel west on Woodland Ave, really really west. It doesn’t take as long as you think. When you get to the 60s you will start to see a few African restaurants. You can do as we did, picking African Small Pot, a small restaurant specializing in West African food.

I learned from Kilimandjaro that house bottled, sweet, ginger juice is a must to accompany any West African meal. Also, our silverware came in a water bowl.

After ordering a few entrees, we were asked if we wanted to be served “feast” style. Obviously, the answer was yes; feasting is awesome. We were presented with two large silver trays with our food piles. It was a happy sight. On top of rice mounds, our fried tilapia. On the sides, our lamb dibi, plantains, and broccoli. In bowls, curry chicken and peanut sauce over chicken.

The tilapia was simply prepared, I probably would try the whole version rather than filets next time. The charred bites lamb dibi chops ($10) were well worth the messy mouth and hands. In between bites of meat and rice, I enjoyed the cut up, blackened plantains.

As a side note, my sister thinks the lamb in the picture looks like a pugs face. Hope that doesn’t kill your appetite.

The peanut chicken (above) and curry chicken comes as a few pieces of cut up chicken in a large amount of their respective sauces. The peanut is pleasantly bitter, like unsweetened peanut butter, while the curry is relatively subtle.

Beef skewers, though we ordered them thinking they would be be an appetizers, came later ($5 for 5). Some of the skewered pieces were a little chewy, not enough to ruin it, and we loved the juicy marinade.

For dessert -thiakrys- a pudding made from millet, sour cream, and vanilla was something to all of us. It is a pretty unique texture and flavor combination; it grew on me.

Though language issues prevented the chef and his staff from being able to explain some of the dishes to us, they were very sweet and welcoming to us.

THE + (What somebody who likes this place would say)

• I like communal food piles

THE – (What somebody who doesn’t like this place would say)

• I don’t like sharing

African Small Pot, 6505 Woodland Ave, 267 713 7603