Go West: Angie’s Kitchen
Please note: This article is published as an archive copy from Philadelphia City Paper. My City Paper is not affiliated with Philadelphia City Paper. Philadelphia City Paper was an alternative weekly newspaper in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The last edition was published on October 8, 2015.
Opened in 2005, Angie's Kitchen specializes in the foods of Liberia, a West African country located tellingly on the Pepper Coast.
- 618 S. 52nd St., 215-471-1422
- hours: 9:30 a.m.-10 p.m. daily
- recommended dishes: Palaua sauce, achekeh with plantains and fufu
Opened in 2005, Angie’s Kitchen specializes in the foods of Liberia, a West African country located tellingly on the Pepper Coast. The restaurant, named for its now-departed chef/owner Augustine Manyeah, has a colorful dining room that acts as a community gathering space on South 52nd Street. Friends and family come in and out all day, eating, drinking, watching a bit of football or just popping in to say, “Hey.”
The menu is broken down into days — with a handful of dishes available on any given day. When I stopped by at mid- afternoon on a Wednesday, waiter Sullivan Nimley was more than happy to enlighten me on the finer points of the palm butter and rice, fufu and soup, palaua sauce and achekeh.
Palaua sauce (sometimes spelled pavlava or palaver) is named for the Portuguese term for talking, debating or quarreling. While the etymology isn’t exactly clear, it most likely has to do with the mixed meats from a number of animals (beef, chicken, turkey and goat) that lie beneath the surface in this dark green stew of sweet potato greens with orange flashes of palm oil and a lingering chile burn. The palaua sauce is served with a wooden bowl of fufu, a one-of-a-kind starch made of cassava flour. It’s cooked into what looks like a dollop of polenta and eats like a sticky cloud, bland and comforting, with an off-the-charts gluten content.
