Also this issue: Ringing in 4701 -Elisa Ludwig

February 13-19, 2003

food

Senegal Calling

I remember fama: Fatou N’Diaye draws from her mother’s home cooking for Fatou & Fama’s Senegalese menu.. Photo By: Michael T. Regan

Another fine addition to West Philly’s array of international cuisine.

by Elisa Ludwig

Oh, to live in West Philly. If you are used to being limited by your delivery radius to Chinese and pizza and Buffalo wings, you can appreciate the edible bounty available on Lancaster Avenue and Chestnut Street, where the concentration of international restaurants seems to grow by the day. The flip side is that for the West Philly resident, every meal must pose a difficult decision -- kabobs or curry? Ethiopian or Thai? -- but to this enthusiastic eater that does not seem like such a terrible dilemma.

The latest reason to covet a 19104 zip code is Fatou & Fama, a Senegalese restaurant that had its beginnings on 61st and Lansdowne and has now reopened on the global corridor of Chestnut. This family-owned enterprise has a friendly and intimate atmosphere. Pale pink walls are covered with African artwork -- tapestries, carved masks and paintings. Earth-colored sand paintings propped on each table are for sale, as are batiks and handmade jewelry by local artists. More than a restaurant, Fatou & Fama is striving to be a cultural center, where schoolchildren can come to learn about African traditions and diners can be regaled with folktales from visiting storytellers. Owner Fatou N'Diaye, who came to the States from Dakar 12 years ago, draws from her mother Fama's recipes (hence the restaurant's name) in the hopes of introducing Americans to her native cuisine.

During the day, Fatou & Fama offers a buffet lunch set up in the back half of the dining room, but dinner is strictly a la carte. The main cuisine is Senegalese, but there are soul food and West Indian dishes as well. To read the menu is to get a sense of the African diaspora and its overlapping culinary legacies. The ingredients -- peanuts, plantains, rice, greens, beans -- form a thread that connects these cooking traditions.

An example is the fresh juice that figures into both West African and West Indian cuisines. Fatou & Fama makes its own beverages from tangy ginger root and floral-scented bissap (sorrel). You can order either separately or together in the Mama Fama punch, a strong brew that's intoxicating in its sweetness.

In the way of appetizers, we sampled fried plantains, which were at the amazing junction between crisp and tender. These were served with a chutney of stewed onions and hot peppers, a savory sauce that complemented the sweet discs well. Another appetizer, akara -- black-eyed pea fritters the size of Susan B. Anthonys -- came with a similar sauce. Their crisp deep-fried shells opened to white, fluffy centers of mashed legumes. These were tasty, though they had the look of overfry in too-hot oil.

The main course, delivered on enormous shallow baskets, is generously apportioned. The vast mound of rice beneath each entree is, on its own, enough to feed a few people. A young child sitting near us clapped as the server brought around each meal, and, with such a grand presentation, it was easy to see where his excitement was coming from.

In all the entrees we sampled, meats were stewed or roasted for long periods of time until their textures were soft and their flavors mellowed. Mechoui, or lamb shank in a sauce of onions and green olives, was satisfyingly hearty. The lamb here and elsewhere on the menu is fatty, which contributes to its melting consistency. Yassa chicken, considered a signature Senegalese dish, has a similar, golden color with its smothering of oil-absorbing onions, but here the flavor was more informed by lemon juice.

I also tried the soupa kanja, a complex, intensely seasoned stew. Okra and palm oil are cooked to a thick porridge that serves as a base for chunks of lamb heightened by pieces of smoked fish, called guedge. This dish, with its concentrated, unusual flavor, is not for the faint-hearted, and I ended up spooning it in small measures onto my rice.

We especially enjoyed the maafe, a rosy-hued wonder of a peanut sauce that contains tomato, potato and onion. It can be served over lamb or chicken, and for the vegetarian there is a meatless version that comes with rice and beans.

Almost all of the dishes are accompanied by white or brown rice or a choice of couscous, vermicelli, athieke (processed cassava porridge) and plantains.

Desserts mostly fall into the soul food category: banana pudding, peach cobbler and sweet potato pie. But Fatou & Fama does offer a sampling of deke, a mildly sweet pudding made from couscous.

All this good eating was offset by the aforementioned sad fact: I don't live in West Philly. I did, however, learn that Fatou & Fama has a takeout option, and it probably won't be long before I am carrying out some Styrofoam containers of maafe and plantains and clapping inwardly all the way home.

Fatou & Fama
4002 Chestnut St., 215-386-0700

Appetizers, $3.95-$5.95; entrees, $8.95-$12.95
Tue.-Thu., 11 a.m.- 10 p.m.; Fri.-Sat., 11 a.m.-midnight; Sun., noon-8 p.m.
Wheelchair accessible. Smoking is not permitted. Reservations are accepted. All major credit cards.