Julio H.
Yelp
I came by to support our local businesses and to support my belly wanting delicious food. This is going to take a while, btw.
I first had piri-piri chicken in Jacksonville of all places, and not at an African restaurant but at a pizza place (of all places), that for some unknown reason was making piri-piri chicken pizza. The owners were not African, neither had been to Africa, so there is no explanation as to why this dish is on the pizza menu. I love spicy stuff, so piri-piri became a thing for me. Later on, a South African restaurant opened north of Ft. Lauderdale and their staple was piri-piri chicken. I had it, it was really good, not better than piri-piri chicken pizza.
But then, when I was praising this dish as a South African dish, I learned that it is the national dish of Mozambique. Wtf?! OK, so they eat it in South Africa but it is from Mozambique. Got it. So... there is no luck of finding an original Mozambique style piri-piri in Orlando, but here is a twist. While I was visiting a Portuguese friend in Boston, MA, he was telling me about the West African community there, him being from the Azores or Cape Verde (can't remember) but of Portuguese nationality. So, six months later, I have a puzzle in front of me: piri-piri chicken, Orlando, West Africa, Mozambique, and Portugal, and for some reason I thought "well, if Portuguese people colonized Mozambique, maybe they have piri-piri chicken". And that's how I ended up in Bem Bom.
Because of the pandemic, I ordered over the phone. My order was ready when I got there but unfortunately NO utensils and NO extra piri-piri for dipping (it needs sauce!!!). The chicken otherwise is too dry, and the burnt flavors come in too strong. But even these setbacks, it was freaking good. I am not ordering more take-out but I will sit down and enjoy a proper meal when the pandemic is over.