We Visited African Food Heaven In West Jakarta

JAKARTA - Cloudy weather makes stomach hungry easily. If you are bored with just the same food, we will recommend one place that will make you curious. We visited the African Food Center (AFC) Nwyanyi Nnewi on Jalan KS Tubun, Slipi, West Jakarta to enjoy all the African specialties.

We arrived at AFC around 12.30 WIB. It felt like the right time to fill your stomach with a heavy meal, considering it's lunch time. The AFC position is right on the side of the road, so you can easily find this place to eat.

Going inside, it turns out that a number of visitors who seem to come from Africa are enjoying their food on white plates. There is no food menu attached there and we were confused when we were going to order food.

"The message is here, sis," said a waitress who seemed to know we were confused. He also invited us to choose what we wanted to eat that lunch.

It took a long time, about 15 minutes for us to choose food. Besides being foreign to see the type of food, there are also so many choices. At a glance, in front of us are a wide selection of African specialties.

After hearing the explanation from the waiter, we finally chose bitter leaf soup and fufu complete with animal protein in the form of boiled chicken. After ordering directly at the food window - similar to Warteg - we sat down to choose an empty seat.

Before long, our food arrived. Fufu and bitter leaf soup complete with chicken served on two white plates without spoons and forks. We also saw restaurant visitors who were eating their food, it turns out, to eat all of this, you don't need additional tools other than your own hands.

Initially, we immediately tried fufu, which is the staple food of African people. This food is made from wheat flour which is given water and then cooked and coagulated. Solid but like bread dough and tastes bland if not dipped with side dishes.

After trying it without dipping it, we also tried it by dipping it into the bitter leaf soup which looks similar to Padang's curry. The first taste is spicy. Besides that, the taste of the sauce is also very oily but it looks like spices and greasy. Not suitable for those of you who are on a diet program.

Next we tried to eat fufu with soup and vegetables in bitter leaf soup, complete with chicken that we shred. This bitter leaf soup uses papaya leaves which taste a little bitter. The taste is spicy, slightly bitter, and oily together on the tongue and makes it a quite delicious blend.

We ate almost half of the fufu and bitter leaf soup and made us full. Apparently, this food portion is also large. Even though we only ordered half the normal portion.

Unfortunately, when we went to Nwanyi Nnewi, I couldn't play Zobo or the African drink. This is because one of the employees there said that today they did not make Zobo made from ginger.

Apart from Fufu, AFC also provides a variety of rice dishes, such as fried rice, white rice, and rice that is specially cooked with spices like in Africa. Not only that, there are also other animal protein options such as meat and fish.

After eating, we had a chance to chat with Dwi, the manager of AFC. To VOI, Dwi explained that the food they sell is authentic food from Africa. The concept is the same as the restaurant there, where visitors can choose food directly.

"Yes (this is the concept) like most restaurants in Africa the style is like this. Because the owner is a Nigerian," he said during a conversation with us, Saturday, December 7.

Build a distinctive taste

Dwi said, this restaurant has actually been open for the last five years. However, they just moved to Jalan KS Tubun, West Jakarta.

Because the owner is native to Nigeria, the food here tastes exactly like the original place. Not only that, the spices they use in this restaurant are also imported directly from Africa like the oil they use.

"The taste is exactly the same. We come directly from outside, from Africa or Malaysia. The problem is here, the ingredients are rare, like pandoya," he said.

"Like the oil we use, it's mustard oil. It's red in color. That's why the oil in the food is red. That's what makes the taste different. The texture is stickier too," he added.

The visitors who come, especially those who are native to Africa, will usually choose ego. This food is a type of culinary soup that combines free-range chicken and beef gravel. Uniquely, this food sauce is made with a mixture of melon mashed with pumpkin seeds.

Apart from being African, Dwi said that many Indonesians also eat at AFC. Usually, they come out of curiosity after seeing reviews of the food sold there.

"But usually if Indonesians are confused about what to eat, because they are not used to it either. Unless they have an African boyfriend or husband, they will immediately know what to order," he said with a smile.

If that's the case, said Dwi, usually the waiters will tell those who are confused about which menu to try. Aside from ego, usually, the waiter will recommend bitter leaf soup and fufu like the one we tried.

Regarding the price, you don't need to worry. The food that is in AFC, will not make you spend deeply. Because, half a portion of fufu and bitter leaf soup like what we ate, complete with mineral water, only costs IDR 45 thousand.

How, ready to taste African food for your weekend?