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Teranga (JP Review)

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Been wanting to go to Teranga since they opened last year. Finally went a couple of weekends ago and was not disappointed at all. We were greeted with the friendliest of smiles and sat down at the bar. After looking at the menu, I was slightly surprised (I say slightly because I read in passing earlier in the day about some Vietnamese influence in Senegalese cuisine) to see a few items that clearly had a Vietnamese twist to them. I asked the waitress how that came to be and she replied that as both were French colonized the mixture of cultures is evident in Senegal, which has a large Vietnamese community. Hm...learn something new everyday I guess.



A plate of toasted bread came out along with a dipping sauce that had hints of curry. We devoured this in seconds, not only because we were both starving but because the dipping sauce was highly addictive.



I had to order the Nem, which is Teranga's version of the egg roll. This came with a nuoc mam (fish sauce) dipping sauce. I have to say if you replaced the beef with pork you might be able to have this egg roll in a Vietnamese restaurant. Ok, the texture of the wrapping was a little different. Instead of being a lighter fried wrapper it had a chewier, ricey tasting wrapper. Not that this was bad, in fact, it was very, very good. Any future trip to Teranga has to include an order of Nem.




For our mains, I went with the national dish (Thiebou Djeun) which is a herb-stuffed white fish served with jasmine rice and some root vegetables. The fish came out looking a little dry, and it did taste a bit overcooked. The flavors itself were good, but I think I was expecting some bigger flavors. I've never had Senegalese food before, so my expectations might have been wrong to start, but I was thinking bold, spicy flavors. The rice was nicely cooked and the portion was huge.




Abby, who lately has been ordering a lot better (maybe luckier) than me, went with the Brochettes. This was grilled cubes of beef with yucca fries. Perfectly cooked beef with great flavors. She enjoyed the yucca fries a lot, but I thought they needed a little salt.



We weren't sure about dessert until our waitress described a rice pudding-esque one that comes with fruit. We both agreed that sounded fantastic and ordered it. The "sauce" of the rice pudding was very good and sweet and was complimented nicely with raisins and other chopped fruit. The "rice" was couscous and I wasn't a big fan of it, but Abby didn't mind it at all.



Service was very friendly and treated us great. Water was refilled in a timely manner, even though there were only two people working the entire restaurant. Some people had to wait because they had a large group (9 people I believe) but other than that it seemed like people were getting seated in a timely manner. Overall, I really enjoyed Teranga and want to come back to try other items. I do have to take half a point off because my fish was dry. I give Teranga a 3 and 1/2 out of 5.

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