I love this city! I love this city because it allows me to have a cuisine I have never had before and knew virtually nothing about. The cuisine I am speaking about is from Ghana, and the restaurant I went to (which had rave reviews preceding my visit) is named Accra, after the capital and largest city in Ghana. Located in the Bronx it was easy enough to get to as I boarded the 4 Train, exit at Burnside Avenue and about a seven minute walk up Davidson Avenue. As I approached the Accra I had a good feeling about it, the colorful blue building and a sign over the door proclaiming, "Best African Food."
Accra is a restaurant that does not have table service, so you go to the long counter manned by three ladies with easily thirty trays of hot food. Taking a close look at all the options my first thought was the color, it was an explosion of colorful dishes. Most of the trays looked foreign to me, I wanted to try so much, but not sure what to get. So I turned to the ladies behind the counter asking them, with my question others eagerly spoke up on "what I MUST have." Not that I took an exact poll, but the dish "RED RED" came up the most and with hearty robust enthusiasm. So "RED RED" it was. The photo above is this dish. The beans cooked into a fine bean curry, and the dish containing also beef, peppers, black-eyed-peas and sweet plantains. It was very flavorful with some nice spice to it.
The counter with the hard-working and high-spirited ladies behind the counter at Accra. Despite being crazy busy with the long line that waited to order they were pleased and took pride in describing the vast array of dishes.
Okra is a beloved vegetable in Ghana and this dish, the Okra Stew with little pieces of chicken was a vibrant taste, with a definite spicy bite which I loved.
This is called Fufu and it is a staple of Ghanaian cuisine. It is acombination of cassava and plantain mixed together, it is as large as a baseball and has a spunge-like texture. It has little flavor, but it is used very effectively in mopping up the sauce of the dishes.
Fish is also well presented at Accra, both the dry salted fish which is very popular in Africa and here the Tilapia in hot-spicy sauce.
The restaurant area is not large (as so many seem to do take-out) but it is colorful painted in vibrant glowing colors with a tropical theme. Accra has a very comfortable laid-back vibe, very welcoming. I look forward to coming back!
Twi (Ghana) language lesson - "How are you?" (Eti sen?) "Thank you" (Me daa si)
Interesting fact about Ghana - Ghana has currently the best national football (soccer) team in Africa. They are the third team in history to reach the World Cup quarter-finals from Africa.
Address - 2041 Davidson Avenue (Bronx) (718) 584 - 8300