After a long sugar high and trading candy with others during Halloween, most will quickly start thinking of Christmas. In their heads will be all of the presents they’ll be opening, or the delicious sweets; whether it’s the gingerbread houses with too much frosting or the eggnog. However people tend to overlook Thanksgiving–myself included, mostly because lots of people don’t celebrate Thanksgiving, rather those who are fortunate enough to have the day off, enjoy traditional food, something that identifies them and their culture. When it comes to Thanksgiving, my family, friends and I will enjoy a traditional Mexican dish which made me want to ask my peers, “Describe a food that’s unique to your culture, what’s your favorite aspect of it? Would you recommend it to others?” Knowing that many people will have different tastes, I decided to ask two different people, Destiny Ugochukwu and Yaretzi Ayala! When asked this question, Ugochukwu responded, “A food that’s unique to my culture is “Fufu”, it’s served with pounded yam and egusi soup. The soup is very flavorful and has lots of spices. I would recommend it to others” and Ayala said, “A food that’s unique to my culture is the concha, it’s sweet bread. I especially like how it looks like a seashell. I would recommend it to everyone, more specifically a chocolate concha.” With this in mind, I decided to buy both the fufu with egusi soup alongside the concha and rate them. 

 

Since there aren’t a lot of places in NY that sell fufu I had to find a good place and at last, I went to “Voila Afrique” which is located at 844 2nd Ave, New York, NY 10017. My first thoughts while ordering the food, the employees were extremely sweet and although the place wasn't big, it compensated with its amazing taste! As I’ve never tried African food, it was a great first impression. The fufu was made out of plantains and though it had a slightly sour taste, the spices and flavors of the egusi soup combined with the fufu worked out nicely. With the order, it came with a side of chicken all for the price of $33.47, the price isn’t bad at all! Overall the cozy environment, the super kind employees, and the delicious food would be something I would recommend to anyone, and would eat there again. Now when it comes to the concha’s, they’re quite common near where I live, and buying one in a supermarket comes out to $1.79 per concha. Unfortunately, Ayala’s preferred flavor of concha wasn’t available so I had to go with the vanilla flavor. It was really good and I would describe the outside of the concha as slightly crunchy and with its sweet covering and softness on the inside, it was quite good. Now I can’t rate one over the other simply because I’ve had conchas ever since I was a child and Fufu was a first-time thing. Generally, I would recommend either of these foods depending on what you're craving, if you want something sweeter, then go for the concha! On the other hand, if you want a generally filling meal, try some fufu and egusi soup!

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