by MATHILDE RABBAT

Lots of people can tell stories, but few can tell them well. At Keur Fatou in Mile-End, you not only get to sample cuisine from Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire and neighbouring regions, you also get treated to some legendary storytelling from the cook turned raconteur (or is it the other way around?), reminding that there’s much more to St-Viateur than bagels and coffee.

The indecisive won’t have a problem picking a dish at Keur Fatou, as the table d’hôte only features a handful of them. Pretty simple really. Ndjouga, the cook and host extraordinaire, takes care of selecting a duo, trio or quartet of main dishes, as well as deciding on a standard entrée and dessert for a given meal. Besides a small breadbasket, as an hors-d’oeuvre, we had a simple romaine, tomato and cucumber salad, featuring a healthy dose of shredded carrot. And what’s a salad without a dressing? This one was cloaked in a viscous drizzle based on a reduced veggie bouillon, an interesting choice I don’t think I’ve ever come across. It’s the chef’s secret recipe apparently, so I can’t explain much more. It may have looked like zesty Italian, but it was about a zillion times better. For some strange reason, the effect was something akin to dipping sashimi in a wasabe-soaked soy sauce with a pickled ginger chaser. I relished every drop.

As to main selections, on the night I ventured in, there was a little something for everyone but the vegetarian: a poultry, a veal and a fish main dish (ceebu jen). I tried them all, minus the chicken. I’ll have to sample the enticing peanut sauce-manioc leaf recipe on another eve because, that night, I was destined for a Senegalese delicacy from the sea, featuring chunks of both tilapia and red sea bream. Drying fish over a smouldering fire, a common practice in West Africa, imbued the fish and the juices in which it was stewed. The result is a nice smoky taste, which permeated its saucy onion coat draped over a perfectly portioned mound of white, sticky rice. No heavy spices to be reckoned with here to overpower the fish, but a variety of accompanying veggies like cabbage, carrot, shredded spinach and yam—perfect for a cool, late-summer night.

The same can be said for the veal main, tiebo yapp (rice with meat). A dash of cinnamon was all this tender meat cut into large chunks needed to give the sauce a well-rounded flavour as it simmered in the juices of its veggies. Very reminiscent of a Moroccan tajine, this main dish hailing from Côte d’Ivoire incorporates ingredients like puréed eggplant, onion and sliced plantain, slowly cooked together with the meat and left to stew in their own juices. The plantain was a little blander and tougher in texture than I would have liked, but overall the dish was well executed. Like the fish, it is also served atop a bed of white rice.

Dessert, as with the other dishes, is an uncomplicated affair—a fruit plate with a few chunks of cantaloupe, some banana slices and a couple of delectable dried dates come together for what amounts to be a “déssert santé.” A delicious sweet peppermint infusion is also brought to the table before the narrator pulls up a chair and captivates his audience with the vivid imagery of an enchanting legend from a land far away. It’s just like sitting in someone’s living room. Dim lighting in orange hues, pretty batiques, mismatched furniture, African tracks, throw pillows and ottomans all pitch in to make the ambience as cozy as could be in this newly renovated eatery. But it’s the owner’s home-cooked pan-African meals, his charm and his mad skills as a storyteller that’ll probably keep you coming back. Know what else is great? $15 buys you the whole shebang: main dish, entrée, tea, dessert and a good story. Not a bad deal.

Keur Fatou
ADDRESS: 66 St-Viateur W.
PHONE: 277-2221
HOURS: Lunch noon–2 p.m., dinner 5:30 p.m./6-ish–10:30 p.m./11-ish
BEST FEATURES: Great stews, great prices, friendly
service, relaxed atmosphere and engaging stories
ALCOHOL: Bring your own
WHEELCHAIR ACCESS: Small step in, narrow washroom
VEGETARIAN FRIENDLY: Not particularly
CREDIT CARDS: Debit only
PRICE: $15 per head, everything in
RATING: *** out of ****