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"I discovered a narrow West African storefront on the block south of the First Avenue L stop with two long steam tables facing each other and a cashier up front; arrive after about 2 p.m. when all the steam table slots are filled. The daily-changing selection pulls from Senegal, Guinea, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, and Nigeria — for example, I was told that Ghanaian kenkey (a fermented cornmeal mash that tastes something like San Francisco sourdough) appears on Wednesdays; the day I went there were several types of rice, a Guinean sauce de feuilles made with sweet potato leaves, a Nigerian okra sauce dotted with beef, and a Senegalese chicken yassa (roast chicken with a mustardy onion relish that you have to find in an adjacent steam-table tub and apply yourself). You do better if you know the food, but you can also load up by sight; it’s an excellent deal at $5.99 per pound, and it’s open until 3 a.m. or later every night." - Robert Sietsema