Togo!

Okay, so I kind of dialed it in this week. I had originally planned on getting Singaporean food with friends who were in town, but we made the trek to the west side only to find out the restaurant was closed for a week. Boooo. 

Sunday rolled around and I was tired, it was rainy, and I just got a hot tub (!!!), so I wasn't up for leaving the house. UberEats to the rescue! I decided to order from Choukouya Resto-Bar. I'd been there before when I ate Senegalese food, so I didn't feel bad about missing out on the in person dining experience. 

I have A LOT of African countries on my list and most of the African restaurants in Cleveland tend to focus on Nigerian or Ghanaian cuisine. I have been Googling like crazy to find some overlap and was lucky to find Sauce Feuille on the menu, which is a Togolese spinach stew. I ordered that + beef and pounded yam fufu on the side and waited on my delivery from the comfort of my couch. 

Order in, time to research!

Togo is a small, narrow country in West Africa bordering Burkina Faso, Ghana and Benin with a bit of coastline on the Atlantic Ocean. As with most African nations, there is a history of colonization (this time the Germans, followed by the British and French) and slave trading, earning Togo the name of "The Slave Coast." The Togolese Republic was proclaimed independent in 1960 and the Gnassingbé family has ruled Togo since 1967, making it Africa's longest lasting dynasty. This has not been without opposition and claims of electoral fraud though. 

Voodoo has a long tradition in Togo. Centuries ago, slaves from Africa brought Yoruba gods to the Caribbean and South America. There was mixing of African gods with the saints of Christianity and the symbols of the Catholic Church which over time, changed their meaning. When former slaves and their families migrated to West Africa, they developed a voodoo cult in their home countries. The Akodessewa Fetish Market, or Marche des Feticheurs, is located in Togo's capital city, Lome. is a place where you can find anything from leopard heads and human skulls,  voodoo priests who bless and create fetishes or predict the future and make medicines to heal whatever ails you. I found this interesting account of travelers witnessing voodoo ceremonies during their travels. 

Togolese food is a combination of African, French, and German influences. There are many different sauces made from eggplant, tomato, spinach, and fish and then they are combined with meat and vegetables for a meal. Fufu (boiled yams pounded with a pestle until it reaches a dough-like consistency), maize, and cassava are commonly served alongside the sauces. 

On that note, it's time to eat!

The Sauce Feuille + beef and fufu arrived and I was ready to dig in. I was glad that I had ordered it spicy (7 on a scale of 1-10) because it was mostly flavorless. The chunks of beef were tough and the fufu was blah. I powered through, ate the few pieces of beef and scooped up the sauce with pinches of the fufu, but man, this was just not for me. The spice was good, but that was all that I was getting out of the dish. Maybe over jollof rice? Maybe with a different protein? I wanted to like it, but I gave up pretty quickly and ate a bowl of raisin bran instead. Hey, they can't all be winners! 

8 down, 44 to go! 

Choukouya Resto-Bar
4620 Richmond Road
Warrensville Heights, OH 44128
Website

Operating Hours
MON - FRI | 11:00am - 1:00am
SAT - SUN | 1:00pm - 1:00am