West Africa

BLEATING HEARTS

Step into the world of Goat

Doctor Bello's Faith-Based Hoodoo Could Not Save Itself

POP OVER TO AFRICA

No need to get a plane ticket for this cultural experience

The Pirogue: The Uncertainty of a Premature Homecoming

Thirty Acres, Spicy Bampa, and More to Cook at Choice Eats This Year

Within 30 minutes of announcing our first round of restaurants participating in Choice Eats this year, we sold out of VIP tickets! But don't worry, you can still find general admission tickets ($50) to the Voice's sixth annual tasting festival, which will give you access to food and drinks from ov ... More >>

Reading Around: Annemarie Schwarzenbach's Impossible Journeys

Plus Noo Saro-Wiwa's Looking for Transwonderland

Mataheko: Mash! Pound! Eat!

Welcome to the best Ghanaian joint in town

Q&A: Toyin Odutola on Drawing, Chinese Art, and What It Really Means to Have a Big Head

The portrait artist readies for a group show at the Studio Museum in Harlem

Live: Janka Nabay And The Bubu Gang Heat Up Ginny's Supper Club

Janka Nabay and the Bubu Gang Ginny's Supper Club (at Red Rooster) Tuesday, August 7 Better than: Being an extra in a spy thriller. Clearly, I'm a bit more of a diva than Sierra Leonean singer-songwriter Ahmed Janka Nabay. The setting for his record release party last night could barely have been ... More >>

Destroyer+Sandro Perri

The Wall Street Journal Gets Africa Wrong

There's an interesting story in The Wall Street Journal about how we should get ready for a "Nigerian P.F. Chang's" because African food is the next big thing.There is only one largely unexplored continent left -- and it isn't Antarctica. With the exception of North African and Ethiopian cuisine, th ... More >>

Spring Guide 2012: Granta Eyes the African Short Story

Continental rift

Kaia: Please Boer Me

Happily, New York gets some more South African food

Nneka

Choice Eats 2012: A Few Snapshots

One innovation this year was the appearance of cafeteria trays, enabling one to amass several dishes at once, and then enjoy them. This guy told me, "I got mine on the Bowery for $2." The Fifth Annual Choice Eats tasting event was underway in one form or another from 5:30 to 9pm this evening. Ther ... More >>

French Smash Comedy Hits NYC!

The Rendez-Vous With French Cinema series at Lincoln Center kicked off last night with a gala showing of the French smash The Intouchables, with Francois Cluzet as a disabled rich aesthete who bonds against all odds with his boisterous, lowbrow, lovable Senegalese caretaker (Cesar winner Omar Sy). ... More >>

Andy Rourke of The Smiths to DJ at Choice Eats; Sixth and Final Group of Participating Restaurants Announced

Fork in the Road is proud to announce former Smiths bass guitarist and veteran DJ Andy Rourke will be spinning the wheels of steel at this year's Choice Eats tasting event. Which raises the question: Can you pogo while eating?

Oh, Happy Day! Choice Eats Unveils Even More Restaurants

The Village Voice's fifth annual tasting event is rapidly approaching, and if you haven't yet purchased your tickets, here are seven more reasons why you should. Choice Eats has just announced that Despaña, Four & Twenty Blackbirds, Jimmy's No. 43, Nunu Chocolates, Peppa's Jerk Chicken, Xe M ... More >>

Updated: Choice Eats Announces Additional Participants, Still More Coming Up

​Mile End's legendary smoked-meat poutine, with curds and gravy, of course. Choice Eats proudly announces the fourth group of restaurants, bakeries, and other purveyors of delicious foodstuffs to its Tuesday, March 13 festival line-up. Newcomers include: Bep, Brooklyn Brine Co., Fay Da Bake ... More >>

More Choice Eats Restaurants Revealed!

It's time to invest in that pair of elastic sweatpants you've had your eye on. The third round of restaurants participating in The Village Voice's tasting event, Choice Eats, is out -- and, boy, is it a tasty bunch.

Choice Eats 2012: Second Group of Participants Announced

The celebrated stuffed eggplant at Bay Ridge's Tanoreen, one of the festival participants The Village Voice has announced a second group of 17 restaurant, bakery, and chocolatier participants for its Choice Eats food festival. These join the 21 announced last Wednesday, bringing the total to 38 so ... More >>

Chopped Dollars And Screwed Emails: Songs Of The 419 Scams

​If you have an email address, you've probably received at least one poorly written message that promises you a cut of some large sum of money if you'll just be so kind as to help out with a quick loan that will pay some of that windfall's processing fees. These attempts at fraud—known a ... More >>

'Que Bajo'

Dream Act: Town Rallies to Help an Immigrant in Utopian Le Havre

Nobel Peace Prize Goes to Three Women

The 2011 Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to three women: Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Liberian activist Leymah Gbowee, and Yemeni rights campaigner Tawakkul Karman. They're being recognized "for their non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women's rights to full partici ... More >>

Live: Seun Kuti Heats Things Up At S.O.B.'s

​ Seun Kuti & Egypt 80 S.O.B.'s Wednesday, July 27 Better than: FELA! on Broadway. It's not hard to see why Oluseun Anikulapo Kuti—"Seun" (SHAY-oon) for short—was asked to star in the musical about his bandleader father that, after a stint on Broadway that ended this year, is now ... More >>

Chelsea's Banana Leaf Sails to the Island of Strange Starches

A new Sri Lankan restaurant slings hoppers, woodapples, and pittu

PRAISE IN THE TERMINAL

Mbalax's finest stops by the Blue Note Jazz Fest

Ask the Critics: What Are Some Good Online Resources to Send Food Gifts?

FoodzieWho doesn't want a big box of food?​Maya L. Asks: I'm looking for a birthday gift for my food-loving partner. If it were up to me, I'd send him a picnic basket full of lobster rolls from the Lobster Pound and booze to his workplace in Midtown...but I'm in Senegal and out of the loop. D ... More >>

Download: Blitz The Ambassador's Sun-Drenched "Best I Can"

​"It ain't where you from, it's where you at," intones Chuck D himself on the fourth album by rapper/producer Blitz The Ambassador. Blitz is originally from Ghana's capital city of Accra, and currently resides in Brooklyn, but the otherworldly rhythms and triple-speed rhymes of Native Sun (Emb ... More >>

Our 10 Best West African Restaurants in NYC

​The peanut-dusted lamb kebabs called suya from northern Nigeria, available at Brooklyn's Buka In the late 80s, the typical Senegalese immigrant was a guy who furtively sold counterfeit watches and handbags on the street. He took his meals at temporary restaurants set up in SRO hotels rooms ... More >>

No. 19: Cheb at Dibiterie Cheikh

​What a colorful heap of food is Senegalese cheb! Known more formally as tiebou dienn ("cheb-oo-zhenn") in the Wolof language, cheb is the national dish of Senegal. Consisting of a massive heap of red rice topped with stuffed fish and a vegetable cornucopia, cheb seems almost a modern dish, ... More >>

Get Your Ticket and Start Dieting Now: A Choice Eats Update

​Time to invest in a pair of pants with an elastic waistband. The good folks over at Choice Eats have informed us that 82 restaurants and eateries are currently participating in what's shaping up to be the best tasting event of all time.

Janka Nabay, the Bubu King, Grows in Brooklyn

A Sierra Leone superstar finds a new place to preach his country's musical gospel

Jay-Z+Alicia Keys+Janelle Monae+Sade

Dish No. 73: Baklava at Güllüoglu

​​Welcome to 100 Dishes to Eat Now, Fork in the Road's handy list of some of our favorite dishes -- old standbys and new finds alike -- compiled daily. Today's pick: Baklava at Güllüoglu.

Dish No. 86: Fried Chicken with Two Sides at Soul Fixins

​ Welcome to 100 Dishes to Eat Now, Fork in the Road's handy list of some of our favorite dishes -- old standbys and new finds alike -- compiled daily. Today's pick: Fried chicken with two sides ($8.95) at Soul Fixins

Dish No. 87: Katsudon at Ennju

​ Welcome to 100 Dishes to Eat Now, Fork in the Road's handy list of some of our favorite dishes -- old standbys and new finds alike -- compiled daily. Today's pick: Katsudon with miso soup ($9) at Ennju

Dish #89: First Prize Pie's Peanut Butter Pretzel Pie

​ Welcome to 100 Dishes to Eat Now, Fork in the Road's handy list of some of our favorite dishes -- old standbys and new finds alike -- compiled daily. Today's Pick: Peanut butter pretzel pie ($6) from First Prize Pies

Dish No. 90: Spicy Miso Ramen at Ramen Setagaya

Spicy miso ramen​Welcome to 100 Dishes to Eat Now, Fork in the Road's handy list of some of our favorite dishes -- old standbys and new finds alike -- compiled daily. Today's Pick: Spicy miso ramen ($10.50) from Ramen Setagaya.

Dish #91: Porchetta's Roasted Carrots

​ While Porchetta is far from a vegetarian paradise, Sara Jenkins applies the same thoughtful care to her vegetable sides as she does to the lusty hunks of pork that are her tiny shop's main attraction.

Dish #92: Sausage and Egg Breakfast at La Bonbonniere

​ Welcome to 100 Dishes to Eat Now, Fork in the Road's handy list of some of our favorite dishes -- old standbys and new finds alike -- compiled daily. Today's pick: Sausage and Egg Breakfast ($9.40) at La Bonbonniere

Dish #93:The Terrine Board at the Breslin Bar and Dining Room

​ Welcome to 100 Dishes to Eat Now, Fork in the Road's handy list of some of our favorite dishes -- old standbys and new finds alike -- compiled daily. Today's pick: The Terrine Board ($42) at the Breslin Bar and Dining Room

Dish #95: The Beauty at Mile End

​ Welcome to 100 Dishes to Eat Now, Fork in the Road's handy list of some of our favorite dishes -- old standbys and new finds alike -- compiled daily. Today's pick: The Beauty ($11) from Mile End.

Dish #98: Nigerian Goat Stew From Baku

​ Welcome to 100 Dishes to Eat Now: Fork in the Road's handy list of some of our favorite dishes--old standbys and new finds alike--compiled daily. Today's pick: Nigerian goat stew ($7) from Baku

AFRICAN BEAT

Bring your vuvuzelas to Prospect Park

Fwd: Excessive Emailing Is Bad For the Environment

​Apparently, it's time to reduce your Unsolicited Carbon Footprint -- spam emails release over 20 million tons of CO2 per year, approximately .3 grams per message, as this Woork Up infographic tells us. Though the exact science of the whole process isn't revealed, this is good validation again ... More >>

Predators, a Robert Rodriguez-Produced Sequel

This action-flick's pretense is like "Satisfaction" for bar cover-bands—if you hit most of the notes, it'll do