Bantu Food Pop-Up: A Congolese Holiday in NYC

DEM. REP. OF CONGO 🇨🇩

Chef Linda A. Sebisaho, who goes by Linda A. Cooks and runs a Harlem-based catering outfit called Healthy Afrique was to be found running the show at the Maysles Documentary Center this past weekend. In coordination with Bantu Tastes, she brought the foods of her birthplace Democratic Republic of Congo to New York City.

Most of these items are otherwise nowhere to be found unfortunately, so the event presented a fascinating opportunity to learn about some Central African dishes and ingredients that have very little exposure here.

This visit took place on Sunday, the second day of the two day event, and unfortunately quite a few of the dishes had already sold out and were unavailable. Apparently a large group of Congolese people had come on Saturday and cleaned the place out.

Regardless, quite an assortment was still available, and it was great to taste some of what was on offer. One of the staple starches of Congo is chikwangue (below, left), cassava that has been pounded and steamed in banana leaves. It is thick and chewy and pairs well with just about any dish. Pinch off a small piece and pick up some meat or vegetables to go with it.

Catfish stew with chikwangue.

Fumbwa, wild spinach stew.

Safou, a sour meaty plum-like fruit.

Mikate, sweetened fried dough.

Use the links in the first paragraph above to get in touch with Chef Sebisaho, who is available for catering. Any future events she has in New York City will be anticipated greatly.

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HARLEM Manhattan

Maysles Documentary Center

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Sambuxa NYC

SUDAN 🇸🇩

[UPDATE 01 APRIL 2019: Samosa NYC has changed their name to Sambuxa NYC, a name more representative of its Sudanese roots. In 2019, find them at the outdoor Smorgasburg market.]

Sometimes new countries take years to find, hidden in plain sight in their communities until the right keyword or walking route uncovers their locations. At other times, a new place will metaphorically just fall from the sky as a surprise. Samosa NYC and its Sudanese snacks falls directly into the latter category, a new food vendor on the scene in 2018.

The easiest place to find them will be the Queens International Night Market, where they will be a weekly vendor at the Saturday night affair when they open April 21st. In the meantime, we caught up with them at a small handicrafts market in Park Slope where they provided the only food available.

The wonderfully friendly proprietor was offering two choices on this day, her namesake samosas in three varieties as well as mahshi, which was new to me. This is a dish of various stuffed vegetables, on offer today were green and orange bell peppers and zucchini. Rice, tomatoes, and onions create a savory interior with some spicing that is slightly sweet and herbal.

She told me that eggplant is often used as well, which would have also been good. The arrangement itself with the different colors is so pleasant.

Next to this was a tray of three different samosas, filled with beef, vegetables, or feta cheese. My curiosity must have been appreciated, for after my questions I was awarded all three types as part of my order.

In other East African countries, this pastry often takes the name sambusa, but is usually triangular like this. While it is small enough to fit into your mouth, take your time and have a few bites. Each one of the three had a very different taste, making the assortment quite good.

As I discussed the lack of Sudanese food with the proprietor, she mentioned eventually wanting to open a restaurant. We can only hope! Denver has a really good Sudanese restaurant, maybe one day we can too.

[UPDATE 09 APRIL 2019]: As mentioned above, Sambuxa NYC is spending weekends during 2019 at the two Smorgasburg markets. Taking advantage of good weather on the first weekend, we caught back up with the proprietor to see what was new and found the beef agashe ($10, below) was in order.

On the streets of Khartoum you can find skewers of beef, lamb, and chicken, while some seafood restaurants are starting to make fish versions more prevalent. If you have ever had Nigerian suya and see the resemblance, you are not crazy for agashe is actually a descendent of this dish from further west, brought by Northern Nigerian Hausa people. On their trips back and forth to Mecca to perform the hajj, some settled in Sudan and of course brought their customs and traditions with them.

The skewers are simple but pack a lot of flavor, relying on the marinade and a coating of ground peanuts. An order comes with a side of either the "black" eggplant salad called aswad or a tomato-centric version of dakwa (which means peanut butter dip and is a common side for agashe). If you smile pretty, you might get a little bit of each (recommended).

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samosanyc.com

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Jaa Dijo Dom Catering

BOTSWANA 🇧🇼

I do not quite remember whether it was down a Google or Instagram rabbit hole that I first came across Jaa Dijo Dom and chef Charles Chipengule, who has the flag of Botswana next to his profile. This southern African nation is the country of his birth and first two decades, and also a place that has exactly zero representation in New York City.

Catering companies do not make up much of what is written about on these pages, but I knew I would have to make this happen somehow. "Jaa Dijo Dom" in Tswana means "a place to eat," and while they do not quite provide the place, they do provide plenty of options for eating. The vast menu spans the entire continent of Africa from Morocco to Mozambique and back.

After meeting the chef about a month ago and sampling a range of foods, an event with some lovers of world cuisines was inspired and recently about 20 of us got to enjoy some of his passion. We limited the dishes to mostly those of Botswana, with a couple additions from neighboring southern African countries. Reactions to the food were even better than expected, and I think everyone left with a very positive feeling about lunch. If you are inspired to hire Jaa Dijo Dom from this, do let us know what you ordered and how it was please!

One of the most beloved dishes at this meal and in Botswana is vetkoeks (above and below), also known as amagwinya. These fried dough balls might be more commonly associated with South Africa, but are just as delicious in either country. The dough is fried with a slight crisp on the outside while the interior remains superbly chewy and moist. It is stuffed with a minced beef curry (below) and eaten by hand.

Lovers of Caribbean food might notice some similarities to how many islands prepare johnny cakes. A vetkoek can be eaten with different types of meat, but also served sweet with jam or honey.

In Afrikaans, this translates to "fat cake"

Seswaa (below) is a special occasion dish, slowly cooked beef shoulder that you might see men standing around an iron pot and tending for many hours. Traditionally this is simmered with only salt and water.

Listed on the menu as "stampa" (below), this dish has a more common name of samp and beans. Samp are dried corn kernels similar to hominy that have been stamped and chopped until broken and cooked with beans. This paired well with the chakalaka below.

Some flavors of India have made their way into the cuisine of Botswana much like South Africa. Waves of immigration from their southern neighbor and from India directly have led to dishes like the chicken vindaloo devtani (below), cooked with garam masala, tamarind, and cumin. From the feedback I received, this was certainly a crowd favorite.

Possibly the most widely known food item originating from southern Africa is peri peri sauce, which originated in Mozambique but was dispersed around the world by the Portuguese. Jaa Dijo Dom does this spicy red pepper sauce excellently, and a plate of peri peri chicken wings (below) is possibly some of the greatest party food around.

South African chakalaka (below) is a salad or chutney made of mangos and carrots with spicy pepper sauce. The freshness and crispness of this dish was a good break from an otherwise very meaty meal. Jaa Dijo Dom has many vegetable and non-meat dishes, they were just not selected for this catering.

While pairing well with the samp and beans as mentioned above, chakalaka also goes well with the wings, something you may see in the future at a summer outdoor market.

For dessert we were treated to mandazi (below), a sweet delicacy well known in the region around the African Great Lakes. This version is from Malawi, with subtle hints of coconut, cardamom, and nutmeg. It is barely sweet, but perfect with a splendid chewy texture. I saw most people going back for a second if not third one of these.

Mandazi, also known as Swahili buns

Pick the right dishes, and various homemade sauces will be unlocked

Have a desire for something new at home or for catering an office lunch? We're pretty sure we found your man.

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JAA DIJO DOM Catering

(347) 592-6956

Curious on Tanzania/Chef James Lupembe

TANZANIA

There may not be a restaurant for every country of the world here in New York City, but if you keep searching long enough and hard enough, you find the people, cultures, traditions, and food of most. East Africa has somewhat of a void here when it comes to foods, with Ethiopia making a good showing and one lone Somali restaurant, but nothing else.

When an event popped up on the radar for Tanzania, it was a no-brainer to attend. Curious on Tanzania is a travel company offering personalized tours to the home country of the founder, Justa Lujwangana, who was also our gracious host for the evening. The event was of course an advertisement for the company, but it felt like a welcoming into a home. There was music, dancing, alcohol, and thoroughly friendly faces.

Catering was by a local Tanzanian and soul food chef [When I spoke to Chef James, he gave me his Instagram as the contact, so it is linked here]. He created a mostly finger-friendly buffet of Swahili favorites, items East Africans would eat for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Sharing an ocean coast with India has led to a massive influence all throughout East Africa's main trade routes. The spices and traditions show up most familiarly with sambusas (above), the region's samosa. Chef James' version was filled with minced beef, onions, and spices, and did not require chutney or sauce of any kind.

His chapati (below) was excellent, and thankfully two wedges made it onto my plate. In Tanzania this bread is often eaten with stews and soups, or alone with tea for breakfast.

The beef stew for the chapati definitely got the most oohs and aahs when the lid was removed. The dark brown gravy and cubes of meat were covered in fried onions and gave off a wonderful aroma. In Tanzania, foods are often very spicy, so it is imagined that this catering job was tamed down quite a bit to make sure everyone could sample some. Regardless, the (non-spicy) spices are enough to tantalize the tastebuds. Grab a hunk of meat with the chapati, and shovel it inside.

The fried dough (below) was introduced as "better than Dunkin' Donuts," but remained nameless. This is easily recognizable as mandazi though, or Swahili buns. These buns can be eaten alone and were offered that way, but as a happy accident they started to soak up the gravy and are delicious that way as well.

The use of coconut milk in Swahili cooking is widespread in the mandazi and vitumbua (below), a type of rice donut or bread. When introduced, these seemed to bring back memories for the Tanzanian people that were in attendance and made them exciting to try.

Served in a house or on the road, in Tanzania you might see these with powdered or regular sugar and eaten for breakfast. They have also migrated west to Cameroon and Nigeria where they are called masa.

Finished plate, worth the price of admission!

After everyone was full, a Tanzanian musician took the stage for three songs and then dancing took place. The host of a wonderful show on PBS called Bare Feet was in attendance and joined the dance. It looks like Tanzania will be a destination on a future season of the show, which shows off world cultures through dance.

Chef James Instagram

Curious on Tanzania

CHELSEA Manhattan

137 West 25th Street

Eat Offbeat

IRAQ 🇮🇶

In its first couple years of existence, the Queens International Night Market had less sway on these pages than it should have. Usually the festivals visited are country-specific and vendors are reached in their natural environment. New York City has a way of making its similar gatherings into massive, over-populated events. But this market has consistently made the right decisions and continues to be an essential experience for quite a few cuisines that are underrepresented in the city or have none at all.

When relative newcomer Eat Offbeat announced that they would be a vendor, plans needed to be made fast. This company's plan is about hiring chefs that are refugees in the United States from various countries and giving them the opportunity to cook the foods they love for others here that might not have tried them. Their chefs currently hail from Syria, Eritrea, Nepal, and Iraq.

The only problem (for individuals, not office folk) is that until Saturday, the food was only available as a catering menu that required large orders. Since New York City no longer has an Iraqi restaurant (although check this one out in Paterson, NJ), it was decided a market night was in order to try out the food and support what seems to be a great organization.

Like most orders at the market, one tray of three small potato kibbeh costs $5. They are served plain and leave the meat and internal spices to do the talking. The thin layer of potato mash wraps the beef and is lightly deep fried.

At least three of the chefs were there helping, but only two dishes were available. In addition to the Iraqi croquettes, a Nepalese dish called Manchurian ($5, below) was also being served. Colorful peppers and onion top a deep red cauliflower that is also fried in a mild sauce, and it is served over an unseen bed of basmati rice.

It was their first night at the market, and first time in public as far as could be told. The sweltering evening with "real feel" temperatures hovering around a hellish 45 degrees made their job all the more tough. It was obvious that everyone involved in the operation was kind though as the company's co-founder was introducing them all to each patron.

Best of luck to Eat Offbeat, check out their website and cater your next event with something new.

As portions are small at the market, there were a couple extra dishes ordered from other stands, which are included below.

Deep fried fish skin, HK Street Food

Ceviche, Inti Sumaq Peruvian Cuisine

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FLUSHING Queens

Queens Int'l Night Market

I COULD USE YOUR HELP

Eat the World NYC is and always has been free. No advertisements block the content or pop over what you read. If this website has helped you explore your city and its wonderful cultures a little better and you have the means to contribute, please consider doing so. Eat the World NYC is a labor of love, but also takes a lot of money and time everyday to keep running.

You can Venmo me @JAREDCOHEE or click here to send PayPal donation, no account is necessary. Thank you!