Surviving 24 Hours on African Food!!

This is Jollof Rice. And it's one of the many types of African food we never hear about in many parts of the world. My team and I have traveled all the way to Ghana on a mission to explore the African foods everyone should know. From the affordable... I like pink feet. I'm a foot guy. Yeah. To the ultra premium. Go straight for it. And by the end of this video, we'll be trying some of the most expensive African fine dining you can find in this country. I'll take something you can go anywhere from $100 to $1,000. Per person? Yes. Our day starts at the center of Accra City, where NyoNyo Canteen serves up a food that Nigeria and Ghana have been warring over for decades. It's called Jollof. A few years ago, I went to Nigeria, and I ate Jollof Rice with Miss World Africa. Together, we shared this meal, and she told me that... Once you try this, you can't try Ghana Jollof. I'm sorry. How could I just be ignorant to the rice in Ghana? You're not being ignorant. I'm telling you, you don't want to try it. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Ghana Jollof is the best one. This is Chef Mame, the owner of Accra's high-end restaurant known as Gastro. She'll be my culinary guide for today's journey. I've tried Jollof from a few other countries, and I think the rice makes a big difference. Rice cooked in a fragrant tomato-based sauce. It's the essence of all Jollof variations across West Africa. Nigerian Jollof uses parboiled rice, while Ghanians opt for uncooked basmati or jasmine rice, yielding a more aromatic outcome compared to Nigeria's more bold, smoky rice. So, I'm Nigerian. My dad is Nigerian, but I was born and raised in Ghana. My mom is Ghanian. I have worked in Nigeria. I have eaten Nigerian Jollof from home, from restaurants, but if I'm to choose, I'll lean towards Ghana Jollof. Here, Chef Chichi will take on the challenge of creating the perfect Ghanian Jollof. First, I'm going to crush my habanero. I don't want it too smooth, so I'm going to just crush it here in an earthenware. But there's a catch. She won't let me leave until I declare a winner between Ghana and Nigeria. Um, this is tough. But first, I need to see how she makes it. I think this is fine. So, we can get into the main action. So, we start with the oil. What are the ingredients that are giving Jollof the different, subtle variances in flavor that people want so much? It's different from what you add as your protein base. In this case, I'm using the flavorful Tolo beef fat. This is fat from goat meat. Oh, that's not beef at all. I know. I was thinking you said Tolo beef. Tolo means goat, but we just add the beef so that people get idea that it's derived from the beef fat. So, now we are adding this paste I got from the onion, the garlic, the habanero, and then the ginger. Oh, but the habanero smell is really powerful. But it has a spicy tang to it, but also a freshness. Yes. So, I want to get it turned to dark brown. Then I go ahead to add the other dry spices. So, now I'm going ahead to add my cayenne pepper, my curry powder here, and then the dried herbs. I'm going to add the tomato paste now. I go on to add the habanero now. And then the onion cubes. Now, we just leave it to stir up for close to 30 minutes so that our stew base will be ready for the rice. Nyonyo Canteen is located next to the Accra Metropolitan Assembly. So, that means some of Chi Chi's food makes it all the way to the mayor of Ghana's biggest city. That means it must be good. So, with jollof, it depends on the amount of rice that is going into it. And you need to constantly stir it up because I want it all to marinate well together in the pan. So, this is going to take close to 180 minutes because I need to be careful with jollof. Jollof doesn't need rice. Joining are jollof, stir-fried veggies, fried plantain, fried chicken, and braised and fried goat meat. I like to try my rice without anything first. That's how you know it's good jollof. Oh, wow. Delicious. The fat from the goat is very apparent. Savory, spicy. The heat is just a slow glowing warmth right here in my chest. Not super spicy. And I don't even feel the spice really in my mouth. I just feel it right here. You've got bits of like goat skin here, right? And protein. It reminds me of what we tried yesterday. Because if you eat just like a nice big piece of protein like this with some intramuscular fat, that's a lot more tender. If you get a thick piece of skin, it's a little bit more chewy. But it's nice to have some different textures in there. A little bit of protein, a little bit of rice. It's outstanding. I'm blown away. This is the type of thing, once you get going with the spice and the rice and the protein, 2,000 calories later, you're like, what happened? And you know, once you're having an event, everyone is looking forward to the jollof. Be it funeral, be it name is for me, wedding. There's no party without jollof. And just the artery, that's what I said in the last episode that I just want Ghana to be remembered for jollof. Just like burger is for Germany and passes to Italy. Speaking of foods that represent Ghana, we have a lot more to see today. We're headed to three more locations. Oh wow, this looks like quite a process. Chi Chi, our journey is finished with you. But thank you so much. This was incredible. And thank you for not making me choose between Nigeria and Ghana. Well, you know, it's not over yet because we were going to ask you. Look at the time. Yeah, we better get going. This is the moment of truth. This is tough. Let your heart speak. How about I say it this way? I've had jollof in two countries. This is the best jollof rice I've ever had. Thank you. It's on camera. Chef Mame, where have I brought you? We are in Jamestown, Kenke house. One of the best Kenke house in all of Accra, they are saying. A Kenke house is like a bakery, but instead of bread, they're making, well, Kenke. Kenke is one of our local foods made with corn dough and then cooked inside a corn husk. The daily production of Kenke begins with a lot of corn dough, which gets divided in half. One portion is placed in a giant pot of boiling water and mixed until it becomes thick, while the uncooked portion is set aside for later use. The corn dough itself is fermented for three days, giving it a distinct taste and smell. So in a day at the Kenke house, they start around 7 a.m. They try to make sure they get it on stove by 10 a.m. Kenke is more like an afternoon dinner meal. So like around 3, 4 p.m., people are looking for that hot Kenke to buy. And if your Kenke is good by 6 p.m., you're done. So right now, we have some Kenke that's halfway through its journey. So the next step is for them to mix in the fresh cornmeal. Oh, wow, this looks like quite a process. So once the dough is formed, she kind of shapes it into small balls, and then she puts it inside a couple of corn husks. Yes, they're practically like overlapping until they get all around, and then they dig a hole in it so they can twist it and push it in. So this is a technique to make sure that it doesn't unravel when they're cooking it. Who taught her that? Her mother started it 30 years ago, and now she's too old to actually do it. So she passed the recipe down to her, and then her and her daughter are now taking over the Kenke business. From here, the bundles undergo a four-hour boiling process before they finally become soft, glutinous Kenke. Should we give it a shot? Yes. You first, you need to be seated in a nice position, ready to dig in. You don't want to peel everything because you don't want your Kenke to get cold and dried up. And you got to make sure, you know, even though it's moist, you've got to give it a nice... Okay, you mix it around a little bit. Yes. I'm just very curious about the taste because it smells so sour. But before we taste that Kenke, a quick word from the sponsor of this video, Airilo. Keeping this channel supplied with fresh videos and sharing the world's most unique food means that my team and I are constantly traveling. We live for the thrill of discovering new cultures and exploring new places. But we've also hit some serious lows, and I'm not just talking about eating testicles. I can't, yeah. I'm talking about finding a decent internet connection, and the roaming charges are a total nightmare. But guess what? I finally found the solution to my travel tech problems, and the answer is Airilo. Airilo is an amazing app that lets you download and install digital data packs or eSIMs from over 200 countries and regions. No more searching for Wi-Fi or dealing with outrageous roaming fees. Just download the Airilo app, pick your eSIM plan, install it with Wi-Fi, and activate it when you land. Then boom, you are connected... Zoom in. Instantly. But here's the best part. There is no waste. Airilo is 100% digital. Forget physical SIM cards and all the hassle with packaging and mailing materials. It's better for the environment, but it's just so much more convenient for you. Airilo is trusted by over 10 million travelers worldwide, and I understand why. Staying connected has never been easier, saving you time and money. With Airilo, my team can relax, knowing we won't face connectivity issues on our upcoming trips, and you can too. So make it a must-have on your travel checklist. Install Airilo today. Use my code FOOD3, that is F-O-O-D-3, and get $3 off your first eSIM. Stay connected wherever your travels take you. Click the link in my description, use my code FOOD3, and start traveling struggle-free with Airilo. Now, back to the show. It's semi, and if you get a good kinke, it's a nice blend of sour, savory... If it ain't just sour, it's so sticky. Soft? This is what you want. You want a nice, soft kinke. It's almost like Play-Doh, but stickier. You know, when I went to a country like Tanzania, they also utilize maize corn flour a lot, but it usually is just in the form of ugali. But I come here, and between maize, corn flour, cassava, rice, I see so many different types of carbohydrates being eaten as part of the normal diet. So, why do you think there are so many different options here? So, every tribe has their own starch or carbohydrate that goes with them. Amashanti, we're known for fufu. The Ghans are known for their kinke. The Ewes are known for their banku. And then you have the northerners, who have their tisette. I think there's so many soups, so the kinke has to be good, but whatever you're accompanying the kinke with has to be even better. Right here, we have Chef Mame's favorite, salted pig feet soup. To make it, salted pig's feet are boiled to reduce their concentration of salt. I'm curious why that would be necessary to salt the pig's feet, rather than just finding them fresh at the market. So, you know that a lot of our food travels back, centuries back, where fridges weren't made. And how do you keep things from spoiling, right? You're curing it with salt, and you're able to leave it out without it spoiling. In a wok, onions are fried with a generous amount of oil. Then comes a parade of spices and seasonings. Red bell pepper powder, tomato paste, tomato puree, nutmeg powder, curry powder, and a cube of chicken bouillon. Finally, the boiled pig feet jump into the oily scarlet pool. They're joined with more onions. Swirl, swirl, and swirl more, and after some time, it's finally done. All right, here we go. I'm gonna give it a little bit of a dip. Oh, that looks so good. Yeah, you want to balance the kinke with a nice spicy stew. This is definitely it. Yeah, I don't know if the sourness is coming from the kinke or from the stew. It's the kinke. But that adds an interesting note when combined with everything here. Otherwise, it's super savory, very flavorful, and then it's spicy too. Let's talk about those feet. It seems like they've cooked it well where the meat is literally falling off the bone. Yes. Oh, that's good. This is fantastic. I think since they've salted it, it's changed the texture of the meat and it's a bit more dense. Yes, and then it also gives the bones this soft, gritty texture. I feel like my favorite part of eating pig's feet is to play with the bones at the end. You can literally chew down the bones. And you know, even though you bought the feet salty, you don't want it to be overly salty. So you cook it for a while and then you add it to the stew. I gotta take my watch off when I eat. I'm a sloppy eater. Coming up, Chef Mame will introduce me to a new kind of pancake. I could eat this with some whipped cream and maple syrup, I think. No, it's not that type of pancake. And she'll invite me to try some high-end African food cooked up by Chef Mame herself. This could potentially be one of the most expensive restaurants depending on what you pick on the menu. You can get a $1,500 dish. But first, I want to learn how this Ghana-born fine dining chef cut her teeth in New York City. I was born in Ghana, but I spent 24 years of my life in New York City. I started high school in New York. After earning her culinary certificate in New York, Chef Mame honed her skills under the guidance of renowned Ethiopian chef Marcus Samuelsson at his Red Rooster restaurant in Harlem for five years. And how long have you had your place in Ghana? I opened my place 2020, January, and then COVID hit. You know, it was sad that we had to close, but I feel like I used that time to restructure and really get myself prepared and have the concept exactly how I want it to be. So it wasn't so bad. And how's it going now? It's going great. Soon, we're going to learn more about your restaurant, and I'm going to be trying some Ghanaian fine dining food. But for now, I hope you're not full. Yes. We're going for more. Pitale is a genius Ghanaian solution to overripe, unappetizing plantains. It turns them into an appealing pancake that flawlessly complements this bean stew known as a boi-boi. Next, flour batter, pepper paste, ginger paste, and onion unite in a flavorful mix, preparing to welcome that mushed up plantain. You can't just use the plantains alone because once you start cooking it in the pan, it will just fall apart. But you also don't want to add too much flour because you don't want it to become doughy. The final step is frying. This is palm oil. It greases the plate so that the tatale will not stick into the pan. It adds flavor to it as well. Sika is the second generation owner of this 50-year-old establishment. I make about 500 pieces a day. I learned this recipe from my mother. She also learned it from her grandmother. It's a staple food for people from the central of Ghana. Wow, that is such a unique combination. You can taste the ginger. You're right. It's not just pure plantain. There's a unique texture where you can taste this partially plantain and partially some other binders kind of helping it stick together. Very flavorful. Yeah, it's become like pretty bready. But not too much. You know, it's the right amount. I love the tatale. But growing up as a child, I wasn't a big fan of the aboboy itself. Aboboy. This thick stew starts with bambara beans soaked overnight, then boiled until soft. These West African beans look a lot like chickpeas, but lack the chickpeas' thick outer skin. When the beans are ready, Sika adds some pepper paste, then some ginger paste, allowing it all to cook into a thick fragrant stew. Very tender. Very starchy. Yes. It's got like a thin skin on the outside. It's already spicy. This is why you add the plantain to balance it out. Let's go for it. It's like the beans make it creamy. I like that. And you know, the best part about this dish is completely vegan. Yeah, that's really important to me. Yes. I want to ask, I've been fortunate to go to about nine or ten different countries in Africa, and I've just noticed that internationally, African food is not very known. Why do you think that is? So you have countries like Italy, France, Spanish countries that are already popular when it comes to vacations and traveling. Then they moved into the culinary. Now the food is very popular, but it wasn't the same for Africa. It's very rare you hear people say, I'm going to Ghana for vacation. So even though African restaurants were available, even in New York, but it was more so patronized by the local. That are the Africans who have moved there, or a few locals in the neighborhood who understand the food. So not only is there not really enough knowledge about African food around the world, but when it comes to something like African fine dining, it's completely unknown. But you, this is a challenge you yourself have taken on, and this has become your pursuit and your life mission at this moment. So the goal that I had for my restaurant is to be able to showcase Ghanaian dishes in a different light. So more modern and a fine dining scale. But one thing that we always try to do is, we want you to still link back to the roots and still have the authentic flavors that it's supposed to have. So that's what we do at Gastro. Chef Mame. Hello. Let's talk about the dish that's in front of us right now. This is inspired by a street food that's very common in Accra. I saw it at the market recently. Can you tell us the inspiration for this dish? So the normal kosuya nemeko in the streets, you see is just boiled eggs and they put the pepper inside. When I decided I wanted to put the eggs on the menu, I thought of, you know, how can I make it fun and not make it just regular eggs? Utilizing turmeric and red cabbage, Chef Mame creates natural dyeing solutions to submerge the boiled eggs, infusing them with color. I grew up in New York, and in the Easter time, we have these eggs. So I thought about, you know, brought the colored idea in there. Though dyeing the eggs makes them pretty, all the flavor comes with the toppings. So right now, I'm going to put in some red onions into our asanka. We're going to add in some pepper. We're also going to add in some kakushito. We're going to also add in some sea salt. Okay, so we're good. We're ready to add in our tomatoes. You have to make sure you get this nice and smooth. It's hot, but it's delicious. Take some pepper and put it right on top. We've pickled some onions, and then we just put it on top. Garnish with spring onions, chives, dill, whatever you want. And this is how I make my kosuya nemeku. All right, let's go for it. You just throw the whole thing back, right? Yes. Oh yeah. Oh, that's so good. The hard-boiled egg part is a hard-boiled egg, but it's about everything that you put on top of there. The first thing I feel is just heat, radiating heat. Some sourness from there's pickled onion on here, which is really fragrant as well. It's fun and delicious too. And I love that it harkens back to something local here. It's got roots in street food. It's something I've seen here on the street. And then this is the elevated version. They're beautiful. It turned out perfectly. Thank you. Thank you. Next, we're going to be trying something really special. Yes. You may not be able to tell right now, but this is a guinea fowl. It started out looking like this. And this guinea fowl has been curing under a thick coat of salt for three hours. Now it's removed from its salty cocoon and placed on a bed of thyme, blanketed with peppercorns, garlic cloves, more thyme, and a luscious layer of duck fat. Once sealed with foil, the baking tray is placed in the oven for four hours. In the meantime, let's discuss prices. It's my understanding that this food is part of a bigger tasting menu that you're serving here. Yes. Our tasting menu can go anywhere from $100 to $1,000 per person. So would that make this potentially Ghana's most expensive restaurant? This could potentially be one of the most expensive restaurants, depending on what you pick on the menu. You can get a 30-city dish or a $1,500 dish. The goal is to make it so that everyone is able to dine at Gastro. Even if it's a once-in-a-lifetime experience, you get to experience this fine dining version of Ghanaian dishes and such. The guinea fowl relocates from the pool of duck fat to a pan of bubbling oil. Once the guinea fowl's skin is crackling brown, Chef Mame portions it and tops it with yaji powder and pickled veggies. Then she serves it with jollof rice. Now, at the end of this, do I need to say which jollof from this video is the best? If you want to choose violence, but I tried to keep the peace, so... That's a good idea. All right, I'm going to start with this. It looks like a little lollipop. Nice crispy outer layer. It's not tough at all. I would say it has some density to it. It has some bite to it, but it's not tough. Some nice dark meat, great flavor on there. The yaji spice on the outside really adds another dimension. I like this. Right here, I got the thigh. It's such a lean bird, but amazingly, it doesn't taste like it's lacking any fat. Not too gamey. If you add a little bit of the slaw on top to it, it gives it a little sweet, spicy. Oh, it's great. And you know, it's a small bird, so it's perfect to share to get a good taste and then move on to something else. Right. This is Ghanaian fine dining. This is what it should be. For you, what is your goal with this place? What do you want to do next? Gastro right now, I believe is doing great, but we need a Michelin star in Africa. Gastro right now may not be at the level of Michelin star, but my goal is to continue to elevate the Ghanaian dining experience to get it to the point where we have stars in Ghana. Would that be the first Michelin star in all of Africa? Yes, which has to change. There are so many amazing restaurants in Africa altogether, even in Ghana here, you know. I don't know why we're not there yet. I think it's long overdue. You go to, obviously, all across Europe. That's where it originated. You can find tons of Michelin star restaurants in USA, but especially around Asia, too. So many different places that have been recognized, and there's many ways to be recognized, but the Michelin star seems to be that one nearly unachievable sign of perfection. So I think it's a fantastic goal. and eat it, and then I'll go home as if nothing happened. Did you feel guilty, though? Very guilty, but a good guilty, because I was full and happy. About two weeks ago, I kicked it for a very big wedding in Ghana, and it was a Nigerian wedding. All the A-list celebrities in Nigeria came, and on camera, I had them say that this food was good. Oh, wow. I said, this Jollof is good. You can use that against them. That's like the culinary version of what happened with P. Diddy. Yeah. Boom, that is the end of video two here in Ghana. I had a great time, and I want to say a huge thank you to Chef Mame. Thank you for coming. Can I shake your hand? Oh, sorry. You can find Chef Mame on her Instagram right here, or next time you're in town, you can come to Gastro and eat at this very restaurant and enjoy the food for yourself. Otherwise, guys, that is it for this one. Thank you so much for watching. I will see you next time. Peace. Do you want to say peace with me? Peace. Nice. Nailed it. Bye. Going back to my hotel now. All right.