Home cooking, Dakar-style
Having recently moved out of Harlem, I found that I've been missing all sorts of things I didn't expect to miss, from the creepy old guy outside the retirement home that always says "Hey, baby" to every single girl who walks by (and, once, in what must have been an incredibly surreal moment, even for him, to me at 5 in the morning on a 25-degree day while I was in a suit and dragging a carry-on bag) to the rickety laundromat where, being Korean, I was routinely mistaken for the owner.
I did, however, know that I would miss some of my favorite Senegalese bites. Luckily, I found Joloff in nearby Clinton Hill, a comfortable little joint that bills itself as Senegalese home-cooked goodness. We tried the thiebou jeun ($10) and the thiou tofu ($9), both of which were instant hits.
The thiebou jeun (you might have seen variations in the spelling) is a bluefish/tomato/vegetable stew, served over something they call "Joloff rice," which, I'm convinced, is actually couscous. The fish was a little drier than I had hoped it to be, but the stew was rich with a little tang, and the cabbages in the dish were sweet and flavorful. I don't think I've ever been so excited about cabbage that wasn't pickled or fermented. It's pretty fishy, which is a good thing for me, but don't say I didn't warn you.
I suspect the thiou tofu isn't quite traditional, but you wouldn't have known it. We had the same tomato-based stew, albeit a little sweeter (and, alas, no cabbage), with a soft tofu that was firm on the outside and creamy on the inside. I'm not a big fan of tofu being used as a meat substitute, but it really felt like the dish was built around the tofu here, and not the other way around. Who knew that Senegalese-Asian fusion could be such a hit? That sounds like some pretty good home cooking to me.
Joloff
930 Fulton Street (map)
718-636-4011
I did, however, know that I would miss some of my favorite Senegalese bites. Luckily, I found Joloff in nearby Clinton Hill, a comfortable little joint that bills itself as Senegalese home-cooked goodness. We tried the thiebou jeun ($10) and the thiou tofu ($9), both of which were instant hits.
The thiebou jeun (you might have seen variations in the spelling) is a bluefish/tomato/vegetable stew, served over something they call "Joloff rice," which, I'm convinced, is actually couscous. The fish was a little drier than I had hoped it to be, but the stew was rich with a little tang, and the cabbages in the dish were sweet and flavorful. I don't think I've ever been so excited about cabbage that wasn't pickled or fermented. It's pretty fishy, which is a good thing for me, but don't say I didn't warn you.
I suspect the thiou tofu isn't quite traditional, but you wouldn't have known it. We had the same tomato-based stew, albeit a little sweeter (and, alas, no cabbage), with a soft tofu that was firm on the outside and creamy on the inside. I'm not a big fan of tofu being used as a meat substitute, but it really felt like the dish was built around the tofu here, and not the other way around. Who knew that Senegalese-Asian fusion could be such a hit? That sounds like some pretty good home cooking to me.
Joloff
930 Fulton Street (map)
718-636-4011
posted by Dave Lee at 4:27 PM
1 Comments:
I miss that man, too. One time he asked me to "turn that thing back around". It was sweet.
Post a Comment
<< Home