A Pleasant Culinary Surprise

This past weekend Kelly’s father came to town to attend a convention.  Since both of us spent much of the weekend working, we did not really get to see him at all until yesterday, when we went out to dinner.  Now, Kelly’s father had decided to treat us, but he asked us to pick the restaurant, and he said he wanted to try something different, something he might not be able to try back home.

So after looking around a bit, Kelly found this place called Teranga in the South End.  The place serves Senegalese cuisine, with some French and Vietnamese influences.  It is the first and only Senegalese restaurant here in the Boston area.  None of us had ever tried it before, and so it was a bit of a mystery.  But we are so glad we did.  It turned out to be just wonderful.

We each ordered different appetizers, and all of them were quite good, with interesting sauces on the side.  I also ordered an interesting cream and fruit drink called bouye juice that was just wonderful, and Kelly ordered a similar but slightly different one.  The place had a lot of vegetarian options for Kelly, thankfully, so she was able to get things she liked.

I ordered a grilled meat dish with yucca fries (I had never had yucca before) and a good mustard sauce.  Kelly’s father ordered the same dish I did, with a slight variation.  He also ordered this special hot sauce that was pretty potent, but oh so good.  I had the chance to try it and loved it, although I think Kelly’s dad probably had more than me, as he was sweating profusely.

We even ordered desserts, and they had this amazing pudding that I loved.  We had a chance to talk to the chef (who is also the owner, if I am not mistaken) and she was so interesting and pleasant.  We had the chance to tell her how much we liked her food, especially all those wonderful sauces.  I told her that if she ever decided to bottle that hot sauce she makes, I would come all the way down there to buy it.  We will most certainly go back when we have the chance.

-Geoff