When we visited New York City last fall we met a friend for some food and snacks at Teranga, located on the ground floor of The Africa Center in Harlem (1280 5th Ave.). The mission of The Africa Center is to celebrate contemporary African culture and the cultures of its diaspora, and Teranga, opened in 2019, furthers that mission. Teranga is the concept of Senegal-born chef Pierre Thiam, and features dishes from a variety of African countries, with an emphasis on West Africa. If you would like to hear more from Chef Thiam, you can listen to him in conversation with food historian Jessica B. Harris at 5 PM ET, June 9th, 2020 in partnership with The Africa Center and the Museum of Food and Drink (MOFAD).

We love the mission of Teranga to bring fresh, accessible African food to the neighborhood. All of the dishes at Teranga are served in a customizable bowl format: you pick a base, a main, sides, and a sauce. The West African influence on the menu is apparent right away with the bases of Attiéké (fermented cassava from Cote D’Ivoire), Jollof rice (tomato spiced rice that a popular throughout West Africa) and Liberian red rice. For the mains you can choose Moroccan-spiced salmon, roasted chicken or veggies. The sides again dip into West African territory, with fonio (a type of grain found in West Africa, which Thiam sells through his food company, Yolélé) and Senegalese Ndambe (Black eyed pea stew), among others. You can top your dish with peanut mafe, or the mild onion yassa. There are even various levels of hot sauce available, from smoky Ghanaian shito to super-spicy Senegalese kani.

We are partial to Teranga’s Jollof rice, and absolutely love the mafe peanut sauce. You may notice that we wolfed everything down before we were able to get a picture. Also noteworthy are Teranga’s delectable fresh-squeezed juices ($5). In particular, we are fans of the ginger and mint (strongly gingery, in the best possible way) and the hibiscus Bissap. Teranga’s space on the ground floor of the Africa Center is a really nice and welcoming place to sit and relax, and we hope to visit again when hanging out is possible. As of 6/8/20, Teranga is open for delivery and pickup, and is also providing meals for NYC essential workers, and you can support their GoFundMe here. We love the accessibility of the food at Teranga, and the fact that you can mix and match for dozens of possible combinations. Please give them some love!