Review of Jabbama Restaurant

Long time since I posted anything here, but since a lot of the earlier themes are food related, this seemed like an appropriate (and harmless) place to document these thoughts.

The Jabbama Restaurant of the AUN Hotel debuted a brunch special today. They haven’t opened for lunch or dinner yet, but have been offering breakfast. There is hardly any room for complaint about the atmosphere, but the food and service was not at all impressive, especially for a big debut event such as this.

I was reluctant to go to begin with, as the promotional advertisement for the opening brunch dates as very uninformative to begin with—and as it turns out also misleading.  Once I learned of the price (I was told 4000 naira, though it turned out to be 3500—at least the misinformation was a pleasant surprise) and was assured that Wifi would be available, I decided to give it a try.

Before even heading there, I questioned why something called ‘brunch’ would start at 12:30pm (1/2 hour after the beginning of lunchtime). Anyways, in theory, this is not a huge issue since most people probably don’t get to brunch until closer to lunch time. But it is called brunch or a reason, friends. Breakfast + Lunch, right? Not only in terms of timing, but more importantly in terms of what is offered. The poster below suggests they would be on the right track. And in fact my stomach was looking forward to the waffle and pancake options. However, not a single one of the food items in this poster appeared at the Brunch buffet, and the only sign of any sort of egg dish was in the fried rice. The only item from the poster that was available was the orange juice, but I only got a ½ glass of that (as my second complimentary drink) from the dregs of the juice dispenser that was not refilled for as long as I was in the restaurant.

When we arrived (a friend accompanied me to check out the place—I’m not referring to myself with the royal ‘we’ lol), we lingered at the entrance waiting to see if anyone would welcome us or seat us, and there was no sign indicating whether to seat oneself or wait to be seated. I finally went and found a seat. Shortly thereafter a waiter came along. When I asked for the Wifi code, as I wanted to test this out as a working/dining environment, he rushed off as if in response to my inquiry, but then disappeared for some time. He eventually came back with the Wifi code. After I got that set up I sat around for a while trying to get someone’s attention to verify how to go about the buffet. I assumed I was just to help myself but I hadn’t been welcomed to do so yet. Finally, the waiter reappeared and confirmed the procedure.

So, I proceeded to check out the reported “indulging” array of “more than 50 items.” What I found is listed below. The naming is my own handiwork; there were no signs. For the most part, I’ll end my narrative here and add evaluative notes about some food items within this list.

(1)    Green beans – Didn’t try these. Standard fare.

(2)    Steamed cabbage & carrots – Certainly not a highlight, but this was actually a welcome item that isn’t often found in other buffet events.

(3)    Grilled/fried fish filet – A standard item found with all buffet events organized by the hotels junior partner, the AUN Clubhouse. Quality was same as that of the Clubhouse over the past couple years. Very soggy. When I first moved to Yola 4 years ago, the clubhouse served a fish fillet that was more solid (not too try, not too soggy). I would hope the hotel (and clubhouse) would aspire towards that quality of fish filet again.

(4)    Steamed? Or Baked? Fish – Didn’t try this. One fish dish at a brunch buffet is enough for me.

(5)    Baked tomato slice – Nice item

(6)    Mashed potatoes – Overwhipped I assume. In any case, very plasticky, almost to the point of pounded fufu consistency.

(7)    Large penne pasta in alfredo sauce? with cheese – Decent item (though I personally always prefer marinara sauce with pasta)

(8)    Spicy chicken wings – This is a promising treat, but the meat was undercooked. So, I just nibbled the meat off the edges and didn’t risk eating the pink stuff that stuck to the bone.

(9)    Fried rice – This was a high quality fried rice with visible bits of egg and large chunks of chicken, but still fried rice is so predictable as a menu item in all Nigerian restaurants. I’m looking for something new and impressive and I’ve almost come to the end of main dishes.

(10) Nigerian style collard greens (“vegetable”) – Good quality. I stood around waiting for a spoon. I guess they didn’t expect anyone to want to scoop up the Nigerian dish? I finally had to just borrow the spoon from the chicken wings.

(11) Green salad with lettuce, tomatoes, and cucumbers – Good quality.

(12) Potato salad with tomatoes - Decent, unique item (but basically boiled potatoes with tomatoes and some basil).

(13) Rolls – Didn’t try them.

(14) Croissants – Not a fan of croissants, but I tried one. This was a nice unique item.

(15) Yellow cake (bread style) – The cakes I tried (yellow & chocolate) were good. But they would have gone better with a coffee of tea. I didn’t feel like ordering this separately, as I was surprised that tea and coffee were not part of a brunch buffet that was billed as offering two complimentary drinks. As it was, by the time I was finishing these cakes, I was worried I was going to choke because my juice was finished and the ½ glass of water that I was served was also empty. Throughout my stay (and I took my time, since I was uploaded grades while I ate), no one came to see how I was doing or to refill my water.

(16) Chocolate cake (bread style)

(17) Velvet cake (bread style)

(18) Chocolate cake (muffin style)

(19) Orange juice – As noted above, I got a half glass of this. I added cranberry juice to it make a sunrise cocktail, so I can’t judge the quality directly, but it looked hearty.

(20) Cranberry juice

(21) - (24) several other empty salad bowls with remnants of tomatoes, cucumbers, and lettuce; I don’t know if this counts other items, or just additional bowls of number.

(25-28)? Additional plates of the breads and cakes – Obviously this doesn’t count as new items. I’m just digging here, trying to see how the hotel expects us to count up to 50+ items to indulge our appetites. Also, technically the 50+ items should exclude drinks and cakse, since the advertisement reads “over 50 items, a dessert bar, and 2 complimentary drinks.”

Misc pics (in lieu of an overdue blog post)

I guess this blog fizzled out more or less after the first few weeks of my arrival in Yola.
In lieu of a verbal update, here are a few pics from the past month or so:

Man's best friend

This dog apparently thought the Harp Lager slogan was referring to man's best friend.

Let sleeping dog's lie (or dog's period lie) is my slogan/motto for the time being, after the neighbor's German shepherd, Brown Kare (not pictured here), attempted to alter my life line. He didn't quite connect the lines right though:

Critters and poo

While I can at least rest assured that I don't have to worry about flies and cockroaches swarming in and out of pit latrine (à la Peace Corps Congo village conditions, for example), here's a reason to at least flush before sitting on the toilet:

Better this frog than the crocodiles that are rumored to have come up from the sewer.

On a related note, I'm not too concerned about Kermit the Frog's poop as long as it's ending up in the right place, but I had been wondering whether it was mice, or lizards, or cockroaches, or what that had left dropping in window sills and along the walls of my flat. I was betting on Mickey Mouse to begin with based on the size, but after seeing what other people had to say about this important matter on the Internet, I concluded it was most likely Martin Gecko droppings (oval with a white tip). But if there are any skeptics, here is some fairly definitive proof that poo of this form comes from lizards and not mice. It would take quite a mighty mouse to pull "amazing" wall-crawling feats like these:

Supposedly, snakes have similar poo to lizards, but based on similar arguments against blaming this on a mouse ... and for the sake of a good night's rest, I'll stick with the lizard hypothesis.


While on the topic of critters ... I spotted this creature on the same day I had read about the dwarf vampire porcupine dinosaur (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-19830486):

Future office locations?

View from my future office location in the Bagale hills ;)

 I guess this would be the elevator access?:

Or this alternate location in the "FUTY Hills" across the Benue River ... where there's already a covered office space and water cooling system in place:

Yola cuisine revisited

In my first post about Yola cuisine, I mentioned a mystery dish that I was curious about at a nearby restaurant (Kitchen Item 7 is the name of that restaurant). I went back the next night to ask again about this dish. It took awhile to get at what I looking for. I know you have chicken, rice, Jollof rice, fried rice and such, but when I was hear yesterday someone mentioned another dish I haven't heard of that you sometimes prepare. "We have chicken with rice, fried rice, Jollof rice, liver stew, fried plaintains, n--- ..." Yeah, that one. What's it called? "Ndomi" (as I heard the hostess pronounce it). It was hard enough just to get the name, so I wasn't going to bother trying to ask just what it was. With a name like "ndomi" (compare to "ntete" and "nsafu" from my blogs about Central African treats), it's got to be worth checking out, whether it's a stew or snack or what. "Sorry, we didn't make any tonight again." Aw. "But come back tomorrow and we'll make some just for you." So, fast forward to the following night. Three tries later, I'm finally going to get a taste of something new. "Welcome, Sir," the hostess says as she greets me with a curtsy. Did you make the "ndomi"? "Yes, sir. Would you like it with chicken or liver stew?" Hmm, so, apparently it's not a sauce. Perhaps some sort of appetizer or a something like fufu or other dumpling, or maybe an indigenous tuber that's been boiled or fried? We'll soon see. Imagine me sitting down at the table and mentally rubbing my palms together or smacking my lips in anticipation. I'm presented with liver stew and a heaping side of what I would call Ramen noodles.

liver stew with indomie (the ever-exotic Nigerian-produced instant noodles), pairs with Guinness Malta

It wasn't "ndomi" but "Indomie"--a brand name for instant noodles. According the Wikipedia description, this Indonesian brand of instant noodles has also been produced in Nigeria since 1995, but I never came across that in Ghana, for example. A friend in Ghana, quite tickled by my story, confirms that "indomie" is a big favorite in Ghana now too and presumably all over West Africa. ... Oh well. As consolation, earlier that day I came across a street vendor near the AUN campus (a woman from the south) who prepares a decent array of African stews and condiments. And, I guess now I'll put the exploratory eating out on hold until I can get some input from the neighboring faculty who are due to return relatively soon.

 - - - - -
postscript, now that i know better, the signs are everywhere. literally, like on this humongous billboard right next to campus and a gazillion other signs of this nature around town! grrr.

Bringing Central African cuisine to West Africa (part II)

The other Central African treat that I got to enjoy in Yola this past weekend was ntete, again I’m using the name used in Congo (Kituba). Known as “egusi pudding” in parts of Cameroon, this can supposedly be obtained at a couple Cameroonian restaurants in Maryland (in the DC Metro area), for example--The Roger Miller Cafe and A Kitchen Near You--but only on special order with ample notice of interest ahead of time. I was never able to arrange this while in DC but I had consequently built up an appetite for this a few months back and ended up finding a recipe, testing it out, and then making a big batch as part of an international foods cook-off at my old office, for which I won prize for best appetizer J

Anyways, getting back to Yola ... On Saturdays, the university arranges for a bus to take faculty to the market. The gas and electric technicians showed up at my door just before bus for the market was too arrive (oh dear, I feel a brief digression coming on). Well, actually, I don't think they "arrived" just then. Rather, I opened in anticipation of the bus arriving at any minute to find the technicians had been waiting quietly outside all morning. A bit confused as to what to do since I was set to go the the market, I conceded "well, let's get this over with since they're here, even if I end up missing the ride to the market." First, the technician looks at the stove piping and repeats something I gathered from the housing coordinator earlier in the week. "The stove unit itself has problems, so you'll need to arrange for a new one to be supplied." Okay, that's straightforward enough. Are we done for now? Maybe I won't miss the bus after all. "Well, maybe I can make it work?" Whoa! Which is it? Either the stove is condemned or not? I like your first diagnosis. Let's just wait and get a new stove. The technician, who apparently brought no tools!, proceeds to borrow a butcher's knife from my kitchen to cut a few inches off the gas tube. Then he asks he asks one of his assistants to see if he can go and fetch or borrow a shifting spanner (an  adjustable wrench, that is). Oh dear. Before they run off to bug the neighbors or drive home to get a wrench, I lend them the one I had just bought to put my bicycle together. He reconnects the tubing and tightens it firmly, then borrows my sponge and dish soap to coat the connection with soap suds to see if any gas is leaking. Checks out okay. No apparent leaks. Now, let's go ahead and test the burners. He turns on one burner and starts randomly flicking the lighter in a guessing game (for him) as to which burner goes he had just turned on. Um, excuse, I think it's this one, as indicated on the knob. (Granted, those stove-knob-to-burner indicators can be a bit confusing, but you'd think a gas technician would know a thing or two about testing gas stove burners!)

End of digression. The bus actually came closer to 10:30, so market trip was still on. And in spite of some lingering apprehension about whether or not I could truly count on a stove to cook with now, I could keep cooking items in mind while at the market. Inspired when I came across one of the many egusi melon seed stands, I bought the ingredients to make a batch of egusi pudding: freshly ground egusi melon seeds, some smoked fish, ginger root, maggi cube seasoning. I already had onion, salt, and red pepper at home. I asked where to find banana leaves – not an ingredient! ... but necessary for the preparation of this dish – but I was told “only in the bush (out in the villages)”. So, I had the ingredients, but I’ll still needed to find banana leaves or figure out how to make do with something else. Later that day, while sweeping some leaves off my back patio, the guard, Bappa, came around to tell me there was a gardener/grounds keeper who’s job it was to do such work (as if it was a crime or a burden for me to wave a broom for a few seconds). The conversation turned to gardening and the things one might plant in the tiny plot of dirt next to the patio, and Bappa then drew my attention to the obvious: I had two banana trees growing next to the fence – one of which bore a regime of bananas that is getting close to the right size for harvesting, by the way. No need to hunt for banana leaves; I could make egusi pudding preparation part of my activities for Sunday.

Banana trees in my back patio

So, I chopped off one of the banana leaves in my back yard. Of course, an extra chore was to wash off the lizard poop and such :P

I'll just wrap up this blog entry with a pictorial summary of how to make egusi pudding:

Ingredients for egusi pudding: ground egusi melon seed (1 cup is plenty)  and seasonings of you choice (typically minced onion, fresh chopped ginger, salt, "maggi" cube, small chunks of smoked fish, fresh and/or ground hot pepper)

Mix ingredients together and a stir in enough water to make a relatively thick paste  (but still a little wet/loose)

Bundle a couple tablespoons worth of mixture in banana leaves (what is shown in this picture is a bit too much). In  place of twine, a strip from the spine of the banana leaf us generally makes a good tying strap)

Submerge egusi pudding bundles in boiling water and heat (over medium heat to light boil) for a couple hours

Remove egusi pudding bundles pot after boiling for a couple hours

egusi pudding, ready to eat; pairs well with Campari :)

Bringing Central African cuisine to West Africa (part I)

Having given Cameroonian cuisine a bad rap in an earlier entry, I will plug a couple tasty snacks from Central Africa, which I was introduced to in Congo but which are also found in Cameroon, and which I treated myself to this past weekend after my first week in Yola.

Actually, the first treat is nothing you’ll find in a restaurant in U.S.—something I knew under the name "nsafu" in Congo. I'm not sure what they are called in Cameroon, but I seem to recall they have a somewhat deceptive English nickname like African plum, which describes their appearance more or less, but not the taste or texture.

I had gathered from a friend who works in Cameroon that this fruit is found there and possibly even up into northern Cameroon (just across the border from Yola), so I was a little hopeful that I might come across them here, imported if not actually growing here. Before I even got around to making an intentional inquiry about this fruit, it came up by accident in casual conversation, and one of the local AUN staff members recognized what I was describing right away. They're called "piye" (pee-ay) here.

So, the other day when I missed the shuttle bus back to my flat and was provided with a private driver to get home, I asked the driver to let me know if he saw any piye. We didn't see any along the way home, but the driver, Jibril, decided to try a few more spots where he expected to find some. It turned out to be a wild goose chase, but Jibril said he had seen them at the market. So, I put that on my list of things to find at the market on Saturday. So, a couple days later, as soon as we arrived at the market, before could Jibril wander off anywhere I asked him just where he had seen the piye the previous week and I headed off in the direction he indicated. After winding through most of the circute where fruit sellers were stationed, I stopped and asked someone. "It's finished" I was told. "But someone said he saw them just last weekend," I replied. "No, in all the market it's finished". Oh well. I figured the season was over, but at least some day over the next I'd come across them. I proceeded to go after other items on my list: a rechargeable lamp in case the lights are out for an extended period of time; miscellaneous household items; a couple dvds to tide me over until I could get access to some TV channels other than the free Chinese programming with French subtitles. After I was about ready to head back to the car, lo and behold I saw tray full of piye and promptly bought a couple dozen.

The only real complication with nsafu of piye is getting your hands on the darned things. These fruit are part of the same family as olives and avocados I think, purpole in color when they are ripe and about the size of a date fig. When they come off the tree they are hard. To make them soft enough to eat you just need to warm them up a bit by dipping them in hot water or setting them close to a fire.

Perhaps another way to warm them to ripeness, as I learned the hard way, is to leave them in a plastic bag in a hot climate :( That is, when I went to enjoy my hard-sought piye the next afternoon, I found most of them over-ripened to brownness, some being to develop a coat of fuzzy mold. 

left: piye at market; right: piye FAIL

Fortunately, I salvaged a handful of good ones and heated up some water. Once they soften up, enjoy! The softened inside is bright green and buttery, more or else like it's big brother the avocado, but is has a very slight stringy texture like a squash and is a bit acidic in flavor.

Stages of piye preparation: (1) start with hard, plum-purple piye from the tree, (2) place them in/by a source of heat  (e.g. in hot water), (3) a change to a paler shade of purple-grey means they are getting soft, (4) enjoy the buttery, somewhat acidic flesh (the bright green part), optionally sprinkling with salt

Visitor

August 11

I guess some"one" appreciated me turning on the A/C this morning ...

Yola cuisine

A frequent question I got prior to embarking for Nigeria, and one I was personally especially curious to find out the answer to, was "what is the food like?" I had no clear idea or input coming in, so my best guess while still back home was that it might include either dishes akin to what one finds in Ghana (and southern Nigeria, judging by the food at the Wazo Bia restaurant in DC (which may have changed it's name after taking on a new cook from further west of Nigeria)) ...

• like groundnut stew, palmnut stew, "spinach" with ground egusi melon seed, beans in red oil, accompanied by some sort of maize or cassava fufu dumplings, rice, boiled yam, or fried plaintains, among other things (as found in the DC area at such restaurants as Sahara Oasis, GhanaCafe, Bukom Cafe, among others)

or dishes similar to what I knew from Cameroon

• which, excuse me to say, with the exception of a some appetizers that I'll get to in the next blog entry, hasn't been quite as appealing as that of West Africa. For example, while you find an okra stew in both Ghana and Cameroon, the Ghanaian variety is much like Cajun cuisine back home but the Cameroonian variety which I was introduced to during Peace Corps training has earned the name 'snot sauce' due the texture of the sauce as the okra seeds have been pounded to death.

or something more like northern Ghana

• with somewhat mysterious yet tasty sauces, accompanied by ample varieties of rice or more commonly by a millet-based hardened porridge (called tizert or t.z., short for tuwo zafi -- I think that name came from Hausa, so presumably it's found somewhere here in Hausa-Fulani land).

or something in between all these of a mixture dishes from these of the sort I would be somewhat familiar with.

Plus, I figured I would most likely come have access to some cuisine catering to westerners given a substantial number of faculty from American and elsewhere outside of Africa had been living in Yola for a number of years by now.

Indeed the first meal I was greeted with barely an hour after I landed in Yola was a mortadella pizza (they were out of pepperoni) at Pizza Night at the AUN Faculty Club (a weekly theme on Fridays). I guess I mentioned the pizza briefly in my first blog entry. Among the other pizza selections, they offer "ass vegetables" :| Uh, maybe I'll pass on that. For anyone who is considering visiting and might otherwise be scared away by what follows, the University Club also offers soups, salads, burgers, fries (or "chips" of course, as the U.K. connection with the former colonial power wins out over the American namesake and educational environment of the university), and various specialties that are likely to grow and improve when the neighboring hotel and conference center is completed and the hotel management academic program takes off.

So, the ordeal with my stove discussed in an earlier blog entry has given me some opportunity to explore the local cuisine, but I still have much more to learn and report. Here's what I've got so far: 

I think I already introduced "suya" which I guess is a word that can be used in reference to any sort of grilled meat but it is typically understood to refer to peppered grilled beef which tastes more or less like a fresh or soft beef jerky. The roadside suya stands sometimes serve that with small banana pancakes which I found enjoyable.

On another night I wandered up to the Tasty Menu restaurant located maybe a quarter mile from my house, with flashing lights serving as a beacon to would-be patrons on the otherwise poorly lit main road between Yola and Jimeta. For the most part, I found the array of food options a bit disappointing. Apparently, a popular local favorite is cow leg pepper stew. I presume the consistency of this stew would be somewhat like the "light stew" in Ghana which I didn't bother to mention in the summary of Ghanaian cuisine above as that is one of my least favorite dishes from Ghana. No groundnut stew, no egusi with spinach, no palmnut stew. (Sidenote here: apart from a lack of substance, I avoid light stew because you either have to scald your hand trying to enjoy it while it's hot or wait forever for it to cool down!) What I ended ordering at the Tasty Menu's was fairly reminiscent of a dish from northern Ghana. Tuwo shinkaafa (rice balls) with bitter leaf stew, to which I added some roasted or fried beef. I was happy with that, but it's not the kind of thing I would introduce to any visitors and expect them to enjoy, since it's a bit of an acquired taste and, in this case, came with some boney smoked or dried fish. On the way out I went back up to the counter and inquired about some other items on their menu and ended up taking away a serving of "moi moi", which is some sort of gelatinous bean-based snack, decorated with a slice of boiled egg in the middle. I really don't know what to compare it to. Hardened bean dip? I heated it up for breakfast the next morning. It wasn't bad. 

"moi moi" to go

I came across a shwarma sandwich stand on another occasion and decided to order one just to see how it was. I was actually more curious to see if they sold the tortillas that they use to make the sandwiches, but they didn't. The shwarma grilling machine wasn't in use, so I'm not even sure where they went off to to make the sandwich and what sort of meat they used. It was pretty awful, albeit edible. Just meat, mayonaise, and cabbage rolled up in a tortilla or very thin pita.

Last night I went out to the main street again in search of more local dishes. This time I headed west on the main road where I had seen another restaurant even closer to my place. They mainly served typical acceptable fast food like grilled chicken and rice or wolof rice. They also had what appeared to be a working shwarma meat griller, so I'll try that for comparison some day. They didn't have a printed menu and the host kept mentioning one thing that sounded unique. I couldn't hear well enough to walk away with a word to remember and inquire about, but I at the time I just said okay I'll try "that one" (whatever you said that I didn't understand). Unfortunately they were out of whatever it was, so I'll save that for another day. I'm sure I'll end up being an occasional patron there in the long run given the convenience of location, but I was on a mission to find something besides grilled meat and rice.

So, I wandered back the other way and headed to Tasty Menu again. This time I tried the downstairs section where they had advertised Ramadan specials. More cow leg pepper soup which they tried to convince me to select, but I was more intrigued by the liver stew which had a more substantial looking sauce. I asked what people typically eat with that stew, and I was shown the "masa" which I understood to be rice-flour based pancakes. So, I had kuranu (I think that was the word for liver stew) with masa and a side of two bean cakes (a bean flour-based beignet or fried donut) that are like "hush puppies" not that that's necessarily a helpful clue. I'll go back for more of that soon. (I'll have to verify and/or add local names for these things later. The bean cakes are known as kosai in Hausa, but they menu entry here was different, 'asuka' or something along those lines,  possibly the Fulfulde term.)

liver stew with masa (fermented rice pancake) and bean cakes (kosai), pairs with Schweppes  bitter-lemon

That's basically all I can report (out of the ordinary anyways) for now. They do have several unique berry-like fruits and a small melon that didn't have much flavor but somewhat of a honeydew taste and look, in addition to more typical fruits (mango, banana, papaya, watermelon, even apples from somewhere).  

Maybe I'll take a cue from my friend Ezra in South Sudan who has posted restaurant reviews for local food spots in Juba.