Little Mai African Restaurant & Social Club

LIBERIA 🇱🇷

Most people driving down the road would not give this storefront a second glance. Two metal gates are closed to the pavement, blocking the windows, while the dark glass door can not be seen through even on a cloudy day. No neon sign helps you figure out something is actually happening here under the awning.

But swing that door open, and a large space comes into view once your eyes adjust. Not quite fancy, but definitely much more than you expect from the exterior. Tables are set with red and black plates, napkins rolled around silverware, and wine glasses.

The decor is spartan, but various charming fabrics and images from West Africa adorn the walls and give the place warmth. The best piece of decoration was the clock below giving a sense of how things might run around here if you come inside in a rush.

Get it?

The TV is set to MSNBC but on this visit the only thing audible was reggae. The large speaker was taken over by someone's phone, which intermittently beeped with incoming messages and interrupted the music.

The menu is simple, and changes daily. Each day of the week brings two new dishes, and there is no wiggle room beyond that as far as we could tell. Fufu was overheard to be a weekend item, so rice comes standard with the dishes on weekdays.

What day it is during your visit determines what you will eat.

The proprietor in the kitchen welcomed me with a handshake when I approached to talk about an order. Apparently the restaurant has been around since 1999, and he treated me as a friend who has been coming in since those early days. An order of both available meals was entered, and the interaction ended with a fist bump.

If you are thirsty, grab a drink from one of the refrigerators in the corner. These units are residential, and therefore have no glass to see inside, but feel free to open them all up and find what you want.

The Tuesday highlight is palm butter ($13, below), served with a mountain of white rice. The finished product is not so much unlike other groundnut stews made in the region, but Liberians are known for their spicy foods and a good deal of heat is built into this rather than just plopping a scotch bonnet pepper on top. A mixed bags of meat and fish are used, ensuring that each bite is a bit different than the last.

When the dish arrived we were asked if we wanted an extra plate to share. When we said we could use one of the ones on the table, another man told us those were just for show. This brought smiles to our faces, and another white plate arrived for our use.

We also said not to bring more rice since another mountain would have been completely redundant, so our order of potato greens ($13, below) came out alone. These greens had a slightly sweet taste to them without any bitterness, and were also joined by a combination of meats. The taste was positive, but unlike any I had ever had before.

We barely finished half of our gigantic plates and had to ask for to-go containers. It was sad to think about leaving though, as the atmosphere was so cordial. After some brief conversations with the proprietor and other man, I perused the bulletin board which seems to be the hub of finding out what is going on in the Liberian community.

From the limited amount we could try, I would assume that any day would be a good one to come here to Little Mai. It is a block away from the University of Rutgers Hospital, if you ever happen to be visiting.

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NEWARK New Jersey

250 South Orange Avenue

Park Hill Community Market and Festival

LIBERIA 🇱🇷

Staten Island often gets looked down upon by liberals in other boroughs as a bastion of suburban, Republican-voting people that could just as well live on the face of the moon rather than New York City. While majorities in the borough might describe this as a whole, there are quite a few pockets of migrants like the well-known and sought out Sri Lankans as well as a rapidly growing Mexican and Central American population.

One of the biggest pockets is in the Park Hill Houses area just up the hill from Clifton, home to many people of Liberian descent and every now and then referred to as Little Liberia. Upwards of 10,000 Liberians have immigrated to the city, at least half of which came to this area of Staten Island. The biggest waves came in the 1990's and early 2000's when two civil wars caused many to flee.

These refugees, asylum seekers, and regular migrants have not found everything so simple here and have had to rely on each other and their social structures from back home more than anything. There are often small makeshift markets and food vendors set up on various streets in the area, but on a couple visits I was unsuccessful in discovering the prepared foods available or having any significant conversations. There are many good reasons they might have to be leary of an outsider coming in asking questions, and I was that outsider.

About a year ago, I discovered Napela, an organization that was created with the goal of helping women and their families navigate life here in the states and ultimately improve their livelihood. This group organized the community market and festival on the 30th of September and it seemed like the perfect opportunity to learn more.

Before the festivities officially begun, a few vendors had set up shop offering mostly colorful patterned clothing. On this windy day the weather always seemed threatening and they were constantly picking up dresses that were blowing down. Like the people I met traveling in West Africa, the responses to adversity were smiles rather than frowns, and there was always someone to help out when a big gust came through.

A popular vendor was also selling kala ($1 for 3, below), a slightly sweet ball of fried dough usually eaten as a streetside snack. This vendor and others may or may not be part of a group of women that normally sit under the shade from trees on Sobel Court a short distance away, just north of the Home Depot. I have approached this group a couple times without success as described above, but hopefully after this interaction a future visit will yield more.

West African and Liberian cooking are known for the use of scotch bonnet peppers and high heat in many of their dishes. A couple of the vendors had bags of these available and what looked like homemade hot sauces in reapportioned bottles. Even if a Liberian dish is not served spicy, one of these colorful peppers will be placed on top so that the individual diner can cut it up and add as necessary. In this regard, I would assume a Liberian kitchen must keep a healthy amount of the peppers around.

It did not take long to peruse the five or six tables of goods, but around this time the festival got going with some announcements and welcome remarks followed by dancing, a solo hip hop artist, and an award for one lucky princess. This all kept the audience very entertained while a few containers of prepared foods arrived.

It was unclear what the food situation would be at the festival, and I was happy to just be a part of what was going on already, but these food containers turned out to be free for all guests to try some typical West African food.

There were containers of both fish and chicken for the main entree, cooked in what appeared to be the same recipe of spicy leafy greens. They offered generous portions to anyone who wanted some, with plenty of rice and a slice of cornbread as well. The dish was delicious, and despite probably being toned down for an event with so many people, still carried a good amount of heat.

A big thank you must be said to Napela and the Liberian community of Park Hill for being so gracious as hosts for this fun event. I sincerely hope that there are more of them to come. To check out more of what they are doing, go to their website and social media.
NAPELA

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PARK HILL Staten Island

Park Hill Houses

[CLOSED] Maima's Liberian Bistro

LIBERIA 🇱🇷

[UPDATE: CLOSED]

Let me just go ahead and get it out of the way at the beginning. The only part of this lunch at Maima's I did not enjoy, was the fact that this day they were out of palm wine. Unfortunately they cannot import Liberia's own Club Beer, so the palm wine is the only alcoholic beverage that comes from home. If you have ever drank something in Africa or Asia referred to as "toddy," this is about the same thing, a usually less-than-delicious and very strong alcoholic beverage with one goal in mind.

At the time of this writing (and the time of me wandering up to the wrong shop across the street and asking the neighboring hair dresser if Maima's had been closed for long), the address on Google Maps was incorrect as the restaurant has completed a transition to a brand new space. When the hair dresser figured out what I was looking for, she raised her head and pointed at the clearly visible new storefront I had somehow missed.

The new space is very polished, yet inviting, and a Liberian flag is draped across each table. We arrived fairly indecisive and were thankful to receive a remedy which seems time honored and well served, the plate below which had samples of all her typical sauces of Liberia. With varying levels of sweetness, spiciness, and bitterness, all four options, including palm butter, palava, and peanut sauces, would have made a good selection, but we decided to take her other recommendation of whole fish in the end.

We also wanted to try the dish that Maima's seem to have become famous for, the pepper shrimp ($12, below), supposedly a fiery way to ignite your day or night. They certainly leave a tingle, but I have to say that they are either over-hyped as spicy or have been dumbed down over time for the non-Liberian crowd. That being said, the little guys do please, served whole and with shell on. Some Liberians eat these whole (pop it all in the mouth whole), so I did this for about half of mine, agreeable to my fingers which were getting very messy.

NOT the national dish of Liberia

The plate of whole grilled fish ($12, below) was a work of art I did not want to touch at first. Eventually it was devoured and thankfully so as the meat was so well-spiced and moist. It left us both drooling with each bite. The plate comes with two sides that you select, and the fish is blanketed with a layer of pickled vegetables and two sauces with different spice factors. One of these only required a tiny dab in a big spoon of other items to create a ball of fire in the mouth.

When we had originally asked her if this was too much food and explained our hunger situation, "maybe you eat it all" was her simple answer. We did not even come close.

If I lived closer, I could see myself coming in here for a quick beer and possibly an appetizer from time to time. The bar area is very inviting for one person to sit, and the room is very comfortable. Maima and what could be her daughter create a very friendly and warm atmosphere for all their guests. The big theater that was involved when she came to the table to put everything in takeout containers for us was almost too much, but each morsel was carefully packed away for us.

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JAMAICA Queens

106-38 Guy R. Brewer Blvd