I had the opportunity last week to try West African cuisine at Fanny's in Kansas City. I met with the owner Fanny who showed me a few of the dishes that they serve which include shrimp fried rice with fried plantains, whole mackerel with jollof rice, okra soup with tofu, and goat pepper soup. To say I was excited to eat this food was a huge understatement. I didn't know where to start. I grabbed a little bit of everything.
The fufu and okra soup was calling my name so I went for that first. I just grabbed some fufu and used it as a vehicle to drive the okra into my mouth. The okra had just a hint of spice to it but it was offset by the neutral flavor of the fufu. Next, I had the mackerel which was ridiculously juicy. I tried it by itself first and then I tried it with the jollof rice. The fish wasn't heavily seasoned, which I appreciate because I wanted to taste the butterness of the mackerel. And then adding the rice was just the cherry on top. I've never had plantains dipped in anything before. So trying her pepper sauce was interesting. I don't know what was in it but it hit all the umami notes for me and it wasn't even that spicy. This was such a wonderful experience and I can't wait to go back and try some other dishes. I loved the pepper sauce so much that I bought a container of it to take home.