These Iconic West African Dishes Are the Soul of New Orleans Cuisine | Eater New Orleans
"At 1212 Royal Street in the French Quarter, I encountered a long-standing West African restaurant that has made an indelible mark on New Orleans cuisine by specializing in dishes that are the culinary ancestors of jambalaya, red beans and rice, and gumbo. The namesake bennachin (jollof rice), cheekily described on the menu as “African jambalaya,” arrives steaming with a buttered roll and jama-jama (spinach sautéed to a deep green), and the rice bursts with ginger, red bell pepper, onion, and garlic — leading Tambajang to say, “It tastes like New Orleans jambalaya, but it tastes better.” Owner Fanta Tambajang opened the original Bennachin in Metairie’s Fat City in 1992 and relocated to the French Quarter in 2003; the restaurant remains family-run with her daughter Salimatou managing operations and cooking alongside her. Signature offerings I observed and that are highlighted on the menu include fufu (pounded cassava), sisay singho (chicken with plantains and coconut rice), domoda (beef and peanut stew with rice), sorso wolengho ni mano (a red-bean dish cooked with ginger, onion, garlic and beef sausage that requires an overnight soak and recalls “olden-day Creole cooking” but contains no pork), and nsouki lappa (an okra-based stew made with turkey legs). Behind the restaurant’s nondescript double doors sits a small, personal space that includes a large art piece depicting a Ghanaian slave castle — a visual reminder of the African diasporic origins the food celebrates — and the business’s hours were reduced after COVID, with the restaurant now closed on Mondays and Tuesdays." - Megan Ulu-Lani Boyanton
