Restaurant Review - Exploring Abuja's Eateries

So many restaurants and No time :(

2011-08-16T02:27:00.000-07:00

I feel really bad about abandoning my blog. A full time job pretty much takes up my weekdays, errand running and sleep takes the weekends. Those are just big FAT excuses tho, because in the interim I have been to some nice restaurants tho. I will however have to visit them with the specific intent of reviewing them. To commit myself, here's a list.

JB's Grill (Maitama)
Nkoyo's (Wuse II)
Woks and Koi (Central Area)
Spice Foods (Garki)

I've been wanting some good pizza and sushi....anyone have recommendations for Abuja?

Thanks!

Guest Blogger - Alhaji's Take On Corn

2010-06-30T02:48:00.000-07:00

Like soursop, corn is also in season. Normally in naija, we typically eat corn two ways. Boiled or grilled. Occasionally we'll add it as filler in porridged beans or ukwa (breadfruit). We also make akamu (ogi), best described as a hot custard made from fermented corn starch.

I figured it would be nice to have a different take on Corn so I asked a friend of mine and fellow blogger Alhaji to come up with alternate or twist on the usual ways we'd typically eat corn... Enjoy.

My name is Ola, I’m a chef and corn is one of my favorite food items, I use it a lot in the kitchen. Yes, I eat corn boiled, roasted, but I enjoy corn in a many other ways. I’m going to share with you some easy fix corn ideas and recipes.

Corn shrimp boil for 4

2 ears of corn (1/4 cuts and Boiled in salted water)
1lb deveined and cleaned shrimp (uncooked)
2tbs butter
½chopped garlic
1/2lb potato (Boiled)
½Italian seasoning
1tbs chopped onion
1/2 tsp salt
½ tsp black pepper
Add 1 tsp chipotle powder if you like it spicy

Heat up your butter in a skillet or frying pan @ medium heat
Add shrimp, chopped garlic, onion, Italian seasoning and let cook for 1 minute
Add boiled corn, potato and gently toss around
Adjust seasoning with salt and black pepper

This easy to make dish is friends friendly

Another easy fix corn recipe is Boiled corn with Chipotle butter paste

4 ears of corn
4 tbs butter (unsalted)
1 tsp salt
½ tsp black pepper
1 tbs
Chipotle pepper
1 tbs chopped green onions or cilantro
1 tsp lemon juice

Gently mix everything together
Taste and adjust seasoning as needed
Generously spread te chipotle butter past all over warm boiled
corn and indulge yourself

Lastly, Crawfish boil

Crawfish is a summer pastime in the south southern states of the United States and there is no crawfish boil without corn.

Crawfish boil for 4
8 lbs of crawfish
2 lbs small potatoes
¼ cup of cayenne pepper
¼ cup of Olive Oil
4 Bay leaves
2 cut lemons
2 cut onions
Salt to taste
6 cloves of garlic

Set all your ingredients in a large pot
Fill pot with water to content level
Adjust seasoning and spices and boil for 15-20 minutes at high to medium heat.
Turn off heat and let set for 5 minutes before rolling up your sleeves to dig in

There's also the option of a simple Corn salad that can be eaten with a variety of proteins for a healthy waistline conscious meal

Check out his blog, he always has mouth watering dishes up and always obliges when asked for a recipe.

Soursop : Fruit in Season

2010-06-24T08:34:00.000-07:00

I had some Soursop this morning as part of my breakfast. It’s been a long while since I had some last, almost 5 yrs. All the times I’ve come home in the last couple years, this fruit has never been in season. Dunno what Soursop is? One of my friends calls it shawashawa , Spanish speaking people refer to it as guanabana and its called graviola in portugese. Here’s a pic.

Soursop

Looks scary, but don’t judge a fruit by its cover. You'll know it's ripe when it's soft to the touch and becomes a light green color. On the inside, it has a smooth and creamy texture.Slightly fibrous with seeds, the taste of the juice is a little hard to describe. Its sweet but with a citrusy tang like really ripe strawberries or pineapples yet its creaminess is like that of a banana. I’ve only ever eaten them fresh but I started to wonder, what else could I make with Soursop? Would be nice in Cake, Smoothies, Ice-cream, candy etc? Hmmm…Google to the rescue!!

Well looky here, I found a couple recipes for soursop that look interesting! Thanks Google! I know that I will be trying that punch recipe very soon, seems so simple to make. I saw 3 recipes for cake, but I think only one that really qualifies as a cake (at least the way I had in mind) is the sponge cake with Soursop filling. The other is a flan and the 3rd is biscuit layered interchangeably with soursop cream then frozen (Is there a name for that?). I also found a recipe for soursop sorbet and soursop Ice cream. You don’t need to have an ice cream machine.

Soursop Sorbet from Simply Trini Cooking

Soursop Icecream from Tastes Like Home

Soursop Punch also from Simply Trini Cooking

Soursop Cake from this baking recipe site and this other site unfortunately there are no nice pics to put up :(

If any of you guys get around to trying any of these recipes, do let me know how it went.

I changed my template again!

2010-05-27T09:53:00.000-07:00

So I've been trying to find the right template for me and this is the newest one. I liked it before I downloaded it but now it's looking uhmmmmm...Odd?

What do you think?

Al Basha Palace

2010-05-24T06:19:00.000-07:00

Based on the poll on my blog, the first abuja restaurant I visited was a Lebanese restaurant called Al Basha Palace this past weekend.

When I told my friend we were going to a Lebanese restaurant, he stopped by Tantalizers to buy food because he wasn't sure that he would like the food. Thankfully I got to him before he could eat his pepper chicken, Imagine!

The menu had a large variety, mostly Lebanese but also included items like steak and barbecue chicken. The appetizers included hommos,falafel and many other traditional lebanese food. As soon as I saw Roasted Lamb Leg, I knew exactly what I wanted. I always lean towards lamb whenever I go to a Mediterranean restaurant. They typically make it so well. I looked up at my friend and he wanted to order the Chicken Barbecue, sigh! I asked him to see if there was something else he was willing to try. When the waited came to take our orders, I asked about the other dishes on the menu that didn't have descriptions underneath and he was able to give us a breakdown of the ingredients. He recommended the Sing Sing Chicken. Most entrees come with a choice of rice, fries (which I thought was weird)or vegetables. In the end, our order consisted of the calamari in hot chili sauce, the Roasted Lamb Leg with Oriental Spiced Rice and Sing Sing Chicken with fries and 2 glasses of Chapman.

THE REVIEW:

The calamari wasn't battered and deep fried like I was expecting. It was actually seasoned and stir fried in ground pepper and I think tomatoes. It was served with a basket of pita bread. I took a bite and it reminded me of eating bread and fish stew(Which I like to do actually). I mentioned this to my friend and to said it was more a generally seafood taste not fish in particular. I had to agree. It definitely not as spicy as I was expecting with hot chili sauce in the title. I enjoyed eating it, had to stop myself to leave room for my main course.

The lamb was moist and very well seasoned and the rice was generously portioned. The rice was garnished with chunks of onions, fresh tomatoes and toasted pine nuts. The sing sing chicken was nice as well, it had two grilled chicken breasts in a sauce made with mushrooms, green and red bell peppers and curry seasoned chicken broth. Chicken breast has a tendency to get dry on a grill, but this wasn't the case here. Most likely because the chicken was grilled with the skin on. It was delicious and my friend commented that the sauce would go nicely with fish. I looked on the menu and they do have the grilled fish version of the dish. Those fries however were not the business. The sauce would have gone better with baked potatoes or even boiled chunky cut potatoes.

All together I enjoyed my meal. The service was excellent. The wait staff were attentive, polite and didn't leave you waiting. The meal also did not take too long to come to the table. I liked the decor and lighting of the place. My main dislikes were the chairs in the dining room which looked cheap in contrast to the setting. The average price of our entire meal came out to about N4900 per person. Steep, in my books. A good place to go for special occasions.

FOOD: 4 out of 5

CUSTOMER SERVICE: 4.5 out of 5

AMBIANCE: 3.5 out of 5

PRICE RANGE: # # # #

INFO:

Location: 11 Cassandra street, Off Usuma Street, Off Gana Street, Maitama, Abuja.

Phone No: 0807-6909-993, 0807-7667-766.

Hours: Opens at noon.

PICTURES:

Pre Starter Vegetables

Appetizer

Main Course:Roasted Lamb Leg and Oreintal Spiced Rice(r), Sing Sing Chicken(l)

Soup! Soup! Soup!

2010-05-20T04:13:00.000-07:00

I always hear people lament about how there's a lack of variety in Nigerian cuisine. Everything is just soup! soup! soup! Then, I started thinking to myself; yeah we do have a lot of soups. We have Ogbonno, Egusi, Okro, Ora/Oha, Afang, Ikong, Atama/Banga, Nsala/White soup, Ewedu, Efo, Gbegiri, Miyan Taushe (peanut soup). And those are only the ones I know of. In the “swallow” category, we have Garri (white and yellow), Akpu/Fufu, Semovita, Pounded yam, unripe plantain flour, Amala, Lafun, Tuwo shinkafa and Tuwo masara. I think that pretty much covers it, right?

So let’s look at how many unique combinations of soup and “swallow” we can get from that list above. 12 soups times 9 “swallow” gives us 108 unique combinations. How many of those would be just plain wrong? Example, White soup and Garri *Shivers*. Let me be generous and say 15%, which gives us about 90 different enjoyable pairings of “swallow” and soup. I didn't even separate yellow n white garri, Ha! While the differences in the flavor profiles of some soups can be very subtle and could get boring, with appropriate planning, you could actually eat “swallow” and soup 3 times a day for a whole month without repetition. If you are like me, you can add white rice to the list and get an additional week or so. Lack of variety, my foot!

Okay, okay, I know it’s not realistic but I think it makes my point!

I’m discovering from writing this blog that I have a huge knowledge gap when it come to Hausa foods it makes me sad because I am very adventurous when it comes to all types of cuisine. Anyone who knows of a good restaurant please let me know.

Things to Know
In Nigeria, soups are more of the consistency of other parts of the world would refer to as a stew.

Who knew taking pictures would be so difficult!

2010-05-18T01:49:00.000-07:00

So For the last 3 days, I've been trying to take pictures of the fried yam, Akara and Suya I talked about on my last post. It's been a case of so much easier said than done! Now I automatically rule out going in the morning..too busy lazying about for that. I've been trying in the evernings but the madness that is the traffic going to Nyanya, Jikwoyi, Karu n co after 5pm is all kinds of ridiculous.

Yesterday, I did battle with a danfo and my car has the scars to prove it. Freaking taxi and bus drivers, they all need their head examined. The guy scratches my car and gets stuck then yells at me to move? Really? You move RETARD since you're in such a hurry, mchew!!!!! Wooosah, I finally get to my akara corner only to realise that I didn't have my camera and my phone was dead.Crap!! Had to get a chocolate bar to console myself after that cos yam and akara was not going to cut it..lol.

I am not a quitter so I'm going to try again today! I have my camera and the battery is full. My phone is charged just in case and I'm sporting my most optimistic disposition yet! Say a prayer for me guys.

For the Love of Street Food.

2010-05-14T13:15:00.001-07:00

For those who are of the light of pocket(like I currently am) or not!

If you asked me what the 3 most popular street foods in Abuja were, my immediate response would be Akara, Fried Yam and Suya. I’d probably be 75% right. Why 75%? I don’t know, just made that up…lol. However, I’m willing to admit that I can only speak about the things I know about. So, while I do know that fura de nunu (sp) is readily available street food, I can’t very well discuss something I know nothing about can I?

*Note to self* - Try Fura de nunu someday soon – write a report!

Back to what I do know about:

Akara, when made right is a golden brown fritter with hints of pepper, onions and seasoning. Made from ground beans, it's soft when you bite into it yet crispy on the outside. My favorite place to get akara is this spot across from the Dollar pharmacy in Asokoro. I've tried many different places in my area but this one beats them all. Usually available early in the morning or in the evening, it’s an easy breakfast or dinner. It is quick and very affordable at 5 naira each and you can get it with Stew or Yaaji.

In Abuja, anywhere you find Akara you will most certainly find Fried Yam. They are sold together like bread and butter. I don’t typically like yam. At home when it comes to yam, I sound like that character in Dr Seuss's Green Ham and Eggs. I do not like it boiled, I do not like it grilled, I do not like it fried and I most certainly don’t like it in porridge. For some reason though, Fried yam from the street is the only exception to my otherwise all encompassing dislike of yam. Don’t ask me why, ‘cos I really don’t know. I suspect it might be the choice of yam or maybe the temperature of the oil. I like it with just a quick dip in good yaji. I’ve tried to duplicate it at home to no avail.

150 Naira worth of Akara and Fried Yam

When I was younger, Beef suya(Roasted meat with a spicy rub) was one of the best treats that my mum could bring home on her way back from work. To me, better than all the candy my snack money could buy. Lol! Imagine my surprise when I moved to abj and discovered that there was actually something better; Ram suya. What's the big deal? You ask. Ram typically has more body fat which translates to mmmmh very flavorful meat on the grill. Meat that is softer and achieves a depth of flavor that some how beef suya never does. It's lil pricier than beef but so worth it.

Maybe someday I'll do a post about some other street foods like Okpa, Masa and Fura de Nunu. I'd add Bole but I have seen it any place in abj yet. Know of a good place? Recommend it to me.

Useful to know
Yaji -Suya Spice blend, normally includes cloves, ginger, cayenne pepper amongst others.

Putting My Love of Food to Good Use

2010-05-13T04:23:00.000-07:00

If there's one thing I know for a fact that I absolutely love, it's FOOD!! I love learning about how it is grown, the very many ways it can be prepared. The myriad of flavors cooked up by differing cultures and tweaked in the minds of some brave souls all made available to my adventurous palate. I’m never afraid to try something new and it helps that I have a cast iron stomach too. You know, to weather the duds and the horribly bad.

What am I going to try to do with this blog? I’m going to try my best to visit the many restaurants available in Abuja and find out where the best eats and best values are. In addition to traditional Nigerian cuisines, there are also options ranging from Thai to French cuisine available. Along the way, I hope to showcase some of the best, throw in some traditional and not so traditional recipes and whatever comes to mind that is remotely food n naija related.

Did I mention I am a Corper? A Corper is someone who is currently performing the 1 year of National Service required of all Nigerian University and Polytechnic graduate under the age of 30. Typically characterized by limited disposable income, lol! This means that pricing automatically becomes a major factor in this venture.
Aiight! Lets see how this goes….