Go West: Exploring West African food in West Philadelphia
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.
If you grew up in Philadelphia, it's not all that uncommon for your first taste of African food to go hand in hand with your first, very possibly underage, visit to a bar.
Neal santos
If you grew up in Philadelphia, it’s not all that uncommon for your first taste of African food to go hand in hand with your first, very possibly underage, visit to a bar. For a time, in the late ’90s, the Ethiopian restaurants that dot a stretch of Baltimore Avenue in West Philly were the place to go for sharable platters of long-braised collards and peas. They were served atop plate-sized injera, that ubiquitous, spongy, sourdough flatbread that is made for eating with your hands. Of course, these wallet- and vegetarian-friendly dinners were accompanied by plenty of equally affordable frosty bottles of Yuengling at bars that were more concerned about whether you were having a good time than whether you had a valid ID.
There are plenty of Ethiopian restaurants still going strong and serving cheap drinks. But if you venture further into West Philly, you’ll find pockets of West African communities where the less familiar cuisines of Liberia, Mauritania, Senegal and Cote d’Ivoire are vibrant. They are a bit off the beaten path, yet ripe with plates that are waiting to be explored.
