FOOD & RESTAURANT

A Bite to Eat: Africa Closer Than You Think
By Laura Brown

 Laura Brown probably believes in seeing is believing, and probably the motivation behind her curiosity in making sure she takes a bite before reviewing two African restaurants in Hungary. Her report may wet your appetite.
Africa is the second largest continent in the world, home to several ethnic groups and each of them with their own traditional cuisine. There are also many common dishes, but they differ in the preparation and cooking techniques, depending on what country or region they come from. I thought that the perfect way to writing about African restaurants is by getting to know them.

The technique I chose? Tasting! While the primary stage of my digestive system (eyes) was busy swallowing up the different colours and smells, my auditory system all ears. Hermann, a cook at Mount Cameroon Restaurant, and Alie Turay, co-owner of Afrocenter Bar, Club and Restaurant, helped me discover African cuisine both in the passive way, by telling me their story, but also actively, by serving me some of their own traditional foods.

Hermann, cook Mount Cameroon

Hermann, whose name was inspired by a character in a German film, is originally from Cameroon. He has been in Hungary for just over a year now and began working at the restaurant when it opened last September. In contrast, Alie Turay, from Sierra Leone, has been out of his home country since the war started, living and working around the globe before settling down in Hungary in 1994. He and his Hungarian wife Tünde opened Afrocenter at the beginning of last year.

Initially, both restaurants encountered obstacles. However, the two faced different kinds. Hermann says that the owner of Mount Cameroon Restaurant had been a manager for many years but had never owned his own restaurant, which made this his first personal experience. Another obstacle was encountered in the kitchen; the cooks of the restaurant are not only from Cameroon, but also from Nigeria, and their cooking techniques differ substantially. At times this can bring tension in the kitchen, but it also means that as a customer you may not eat the same food twice, depending on who is working in the kitchen on a particular day. At Afrocenter, Alie Turay says that the difficulties they encountered were of a discriminative kind, when neighbours had taken unconcealed dislike to the African community’s presence by trying to get rid of them. But to no avail, as Afrocenter is completely legal on every count. Another challenge is that it is a small bar, where good business isn’t a habitual treat; “it depends on the day”, says Alie Turay.

Alie Turay, co-owner Afro Center

When our discussion turned to food and my stomach turned to rumbling, both Hermann and Alie Turay gave me a descriptive list of the cuisine of their respective countries. Hermann informs me of a few traditional dishes from Cameroon, including Eru, a dish made of two native vegetables that are cooked for a very long time in red oil, which is an oil made from nut; Ndole, another vegetable dish in which a lot of preparation is involved to remove the bitter taste the vegetable has when it is fresh; Chicken DG, a saucy meal made up of various vegetables, lamb, and plantain, a fruit similar to the banana but cooked like a potato. Fried goat meat and peanut sauce are also typical dishes. 

Fruit is a key ingredient in Cameroon’s cuisine, used in their salads and juices. A traditional drink, called Djino Coktail, is a fruit juice made up of banana, pineapple, orange, mandarin and strawberry. 

Fried Goat Meat

Alie Turay made my mouth water by describing some of his country’s food. “In the West, the food is heavier. In Sierra Leone, it is lighter”. Indeed, as Alie Turay pointed out, rice and fish are essential ingredients in the Sierra Leone diet. Meat can be expensive, whereas fish is available for people of all financial situations. Sweet food is not often on the menu, which means that “dentistry is not a successful profession in Sierra Leone!” Alie Turay jokingly adds. As in Cameroon, fruit is an important component, which primarily includes banana, coconut, orange and guava. 

A variety of vegetables is also commonly served. However, Sierra Leone is not a big consumer of yam which is common in West Africa.

On Afrocenter’s menu there are many African specialties, cooked by Alie Turay himself. He says that all of his guests enjoy the food he serves. One particular meal is called fish turn-over, a Sierra Leone specialty, and is made up of fish and rice, topped with a sauce, that, speaking from personal experience, has a bite of its own!

Mount Cameroon Restaurant’s customers are primarily from Cameroon and Nigeria, but there are also Moroccans, Italians, Senegalese, Pakistani and Hungarians that come and try the exotic tastes. The reactions are varied, says Hermann, “some really like the food and some try it then ask for the rest to be packed to take home, while others take one bite and leave”. 

Peanut Sauce

Many of the ingredients needed to make these and other specialties are not available in Hungary. For this reason, the owner of Mount Cameroon Restaurant often travels to Austria, Italy, Germany, France and sometimes even home to Cameroon to bring them back. Alie Turay says that he is able to find some of his ingredients in the few African stores in Budapest, or he may order them from Britain or from his home country.

However, Mount Cameroon Restaurant and Afrocenter are not only about food. They also offer a welcoming place for both Africans and non-Africans, where a game of pool can be played or a football match can be watched while listening to original African beats. If you’re lucky you might even be entitled to a live and improvised African drum concert!

Both restaurants are in the heart of Budapest: Mount Cameroon Restaurant is in Wesselényi utca at number 49, while Afrocenter Bar, Club and Restaurant can be found at Jósika utca 2, both in Budapest’s VII district.