Best Food In China

Location

You can be forgiven for having not heard of Turay’s Place. Aside from the fact it is tucked away down a narrow alleyway in Sanlitun’s embassy district, the exterior of the two storey restaurant looks very similar to your average Chinese culinary establishment.

It’s the red, yellow and green beaded curtain across the doorway that gives the game away. The interior décor is very much no-frills, with a medley of Africa-themed pictures adorning the walls, simple furnishings and monochrome menus.

The clientele predominantly comprise resident African embassy workers, families and businessmen, and Turay’s has built up an impressive reputation that serves to also draw visiting Africans on business trips or holidays with the promise of authentic home cooking.

The food is a combination of staple fare taken from all corners of the continent, cooked and served with the utmost authenticity and simplicity.

We followed the recommendation of restaurant owner Turay, who is from Sierra Leone, and ordered Meat Pies (20RMB for three) and PEPPER Soup (20RMB) to start.

The pies when they came looked and tasted like British pasties, with minced meat and spicy potato and vegetables filling a buttery pastry case, which suited me down to the ground.

The West African PEPPER Soup, which contains boiled cow’s hoof, is not for the faint-hearted. The both is rather spicy and the jelly-like texture of the meat will not be to everyone’s taste, although it was pleasingly unpretentious in presentation and cooking style.

For the mains we sampled Peanut Butter Stew (50RMB) and Africa’s infamous Jolof Rice (40RMB).

Creamy and hearty, the Peanut Butter Stew was a tasty highlight and a great representative of African cuisine. Although it could do with a little polishing, I also enjoyed the Jolof Rice which comes served with a small side salad and flavoursome chicken legs.

In short, Turay’s is not a place of gourmet cuisine tweaked to cater for the Western or Chinese palette, but an unapologetically simple and authentic establishment offering diners the chance to sample true African cuisine just the way you would find it if you travelled there yourself.

If it sounds like your thing then get yourself down to the promising new establishment “Turay’s House of Africa” when it opens on Gongti Donglu soon, and enjoy a heady combination of authentic African food, music and entertainment.

-- by Jennifer Pooley

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