African in a pinch

Feel the need for some african food in a pince, well you are in luck.

Keur N' Deye fromCozy
Senegalese diningManhattanites with a craving for authentic Senegalese cuisine make special trips to Fort Greene to eat here. This casual, family-run restaurant offers warmth, love and delicious cuisine. They also feature heaping servings of chicken curry, and rice and curried fish. Try the ginger drink and other uniquely Senegalese specialties. As the neighborhood continues to become gentrified, the clientele at Keur N' Deye has grown to include many young black professionals.
Cash only.Address: 737 Fulton St (at South Portland Street) Brooklyn NY 11217Cuisine: AfricanOpening hours: Noon-10:30pm Tue-SunTelephone: +1 718 875 4937
Neighbourhood: BrooklynNearest train: G at Fulton St; C at Lafayette Ave

Chez Gnagna Koty's fromWest Side AfricanFrance and Africa meet at this friendly storefront bistro. Hearty food, large portions and low prices draw diners who are curious about Senegalese food. Try the Chicken Yassa, cooked in lemon, ginger, carrots and potatoes; the lamb version, Thiebu Yap, is made with rice and sweet and spicy onions. For something really unusual, Maffe is a creamy peanut sauce over a mixture of lamb, chicken and fish. Just be careful about asking to have your food served hot, because here that means intensely spicy.
Address: 530 Ninth Ave (at 39th Street) New York NY 10018Cuisine: AfricanOpening hours: 11am-midnight dailyTelephone: +1 212 279 1755Neighbourhood: Hell's KitchenNearest train: A, C, E at 42nd St

Best African Restaurants (Robert Sietsema) African Grill : Ivory Coast. Slow-roasted lamb shank with fries, vermicelli, rice, or couscous. Breakfast is served around lunchtime (one fave: kidneys accompanied by petit pois and mayonnaise, washed down with a bowl of latte). Attieke is the national dish of cassava porridge topped with a fried fish and chile-and-onion relish. (1496 Fifth Avenue, 987-3836)

Chez GnaGna Koty's : Senegalese. Including mafe, a peanut sauce to which chicken or lamb may be added; yassa, fish or chicken wrapped in a lemony mantle of onions; and, best of all, thiebu, the national dish of vegetables and stuffed fish over rice with tomato sauce. Grilled lamb chops or chicken African style, are also available. (530 Ninth Avenue, 279-1755)

Meskere : Ethiopian. Use injera (flatbread made from teff) to scoop up yedoro alicha, chicken and rosemary; gomen besaga, cubes of beef mixed with chopped collards in a mild broth; or the national dish, yedoro wat, chicken and boiled eggs in a fiery sauce. Or select one of the many vegetarian dishes, mainly made with pulses like lentils and chickpeas. Organic honey wine ("tej") is the beverage of choice. (468 West 47th Street, 664-0520)

In God We Trust : Ghanaian. One of the best in town for mashlike yam fufu, rice-based omo tuwo, or wiggy kenkey. Add soup, then a meat like cow, goat, chicken, or fish, and you've got a meal. Soups include orange-and-oily palm nut, brown-and-meaty lamb, sticky-and-delicious peanut, and okra. Wash it all down with homemade ginger beer. (441 East 153rd Street, Bronx, 718-401-3595)

Obaa Koryoe's : Ghanaian/Nigerian/Sierra Leonean/pan-African. Wachey is a delicious casserole of rice and black-eyed peas that establishes the culinary link between African and African American chow. (3143 Broadway, 316-2950)

African Village Café : Nigerian. One of the best West African restaurants in town. The pounded white yam is cloud-like; amala (a mash made from cassava meal) is brown and dense, and tastes fermented. Soups range from wonderful egusi spiked with bitter leaf to ogbono (a slimier version of okra). Best: goat pepper soup, which includes chitterlings and kidney. (724 Myrtle Avenue, Brooklyn, 718-722-4770, no credit cards)

Mogador : Moroccan. Salads like lemony carrot, oniony beet, and a very green tabouleh. While couscouses are above average, tajines are better, featuring chicken or lamb and flavored with prunes, lemon, green olives, and chermoula, a sharp combination of garlic, cilantro, and chiles. (101 St. Marks Place, 677-2226)

Kaloum Star : Guinean. Signature sauces are de feuilles (puréed sweet potato leaves flavored with meat and fish), and the slimier okra sauce, into which the meats and fish of the day are dropped. Perfectly cooked rice is poured over with sauces, known as "soups" (732 Classon Avenue, Brooklyn, 718-857-4541, no credit cards)

Africa Restaurant : Senegalese. Quality a notch above other Senegalese in the nabe. Get thiebu, mafe, and yassa, as well as occasional oddities like the cow-foot soup called "yel" (247 West 116th Street, 666-9400)

This restaurant, formerly known as Africa Restaurant #2, is the sister of the original, and even better, Africa Restaurant on W 116th Street near 8th Ave. There are also Guinean, Ivory Coast, and Malian establishments on the same two-block strip, if you want to branch out.