Out of Africa

Salone’s Celebrates Sierra Leone

By Warren Rojas

We know for a fact that if we wanted to go out and eat … we had to hike out to D.C. or Maryland,” Salone’s co-owner Antwanet Shaban-Brown says of the dearth of West African dining options that spurred her family—native Sierra Leoneans—to take a leap of faith and plow forward with their debut restaurant last year.

The blink-and-you’ll-miss-it eatery resides in the middle of a recession-ravaged Sterling strip mall, its last remaining neighbors dealing either in thrift (Dollar Tree) or escape (ABC package store, dive bar). The interior features very little by way of décor: A few Afro-centric paintings are scattered about the otherwise undisturbed walls. A pair of commercial ovens seems to slumber in the far corner, patiently awaiting the call to join the other major appliances in the clearly overcrowded kitchen. Meanwhile, the sounds of catchy tribal rhythms—they switch to non-stop reggae jams on Friday nights—waft in over the house stereo.

There’s no host stand to negotiate or snazzy bar at which to kill time. Patrons mostly stroll in, plop down at one of the 13 bare wooden tables (there are also two stray barstools for loners/stragglers) and wait for a staff member to peek out from the always occupied kitchen.

Shaban-Brown sports the title of general manager, but she’s just as often waiting tables and/or ringing up guests at the restaurant’s lone cash register. Her mother, Isatu Shaban, serves as head chef. But she, too, spends a fair amount of time visiting with the front of the house, whether dutifully delivering one of her freshly prepared stews or relaxing for a spell to catch up on all the juicy gossip with close friends. Shaban-Brown’s father, Ahmed Shaban, and husband, Michael Brown, round out the ownership/management team.

According to Shaban-Brown, Isatu received formal training as a chef back in Sierra Leone, but had only dabbled in private catering prior to the launch of Salone’s. “She BEGGED for a restaurant,” Shaban-Brown says, asserting that Isatu recognized their selfish need for alternatives to home cooking as a golden opportunity to start a family business. As such, many of Isatu’s recipes gravitate from traditional dishes she and her children enjoyed while gathered around their respective dinner tables to experimental specials—including goat pepper soup and a modified pancit (a Filipino staple) platter—that serve as an outlet for her more creative, adventurous side.

The menu is very soup- and stew-intensive, though those two epicurean vehicles are deftly abetted by a slew of complementary accompaniments (steamed rice, cous cous, fried plantains, sweet potato fries and fu fu—ground and fermented yucca—to name just a few).

“All African food is spicy,” Shaban-Brown states quite matter-of-factly when pressed about their signature cuisine. Her well-meaning warning, however, proves to be, at least in most cases, a misnomer—at least for those of us reared on the downright scorching character of the more prevalent Ethiopian cooking.

Salone’s one “safety dish” appears to be their tribute to America: an unadulterated hamburger. Nearly every other item in Isatu’s culinary repertoire appears to be punctuated by a multi-layered pepper or ground peanut sauce.

Shaban-Brown recommends that first-timers ease into Sierra Leone cooking by sticking with easygoing offerings like the jollof rice (soupy grains swimming in tomato sauce) or blackened chicken, while directing more adventurous palates to sink their teeth into peanut sauce-smothered beef kebabs, curry goat or African-style cous cous.

“I feel like I’m going to learn a lot,” one doe-eyed companion muses while scanning the wildly undiscovered country that is Salone’s carte.

There is certainly nothing to fear on this menu. But newcomers to this particular cuisine may wish to tread lightly when it comes to the curtly described seafood.
But, first things first.

No meal should transpire here without a glass of their kicky, contagious house-made ginger beer. The cloudy, pastel-colored beverage looks like limeade cut with half-and-half. Hoist the chunky, ice-clinking glass to your lips and treat your taste buds to a spicy-sweet rush of cool, coaxed-straight-from-the-gnarled-root refreshment.
“It’s like really awesome lemonade!” my ebullient guest gushes after her first big swig, adding, “This is so intense” as she greedily drains half the glass.

An order of pepper soup summons a lusty broth populated by onions, mixed peppers, tomatoes, stew greens and glistening blobs of unctuous fat sliding off the rapidly disintegrating cow’s foot. TMI? Go with the stewed beef or chicken versions; the more familiar proteins hold their own, though it’s the vegetables that really rally in those situations.

Snack enthusiasts should be pleased by the handsome beef patties, each chubby patty of savory, seasoned beef wrapped in buttery pastry dough that’s then baked till golden and crusty. It’s less zesty than your typical Jamaican patty, but still a welcome addition in an otherwise easily totable tropical treat dessert.
Shaban-Brown goads me into trying the curiously named potato leaves by billing it as “something a little out of the ordinary.” One bite into the oily, bordering on greasy, stew, and I’m sweating bullets. Not because of any surprise heat. But because I’m being clobbered over the head by the overly wooded and dried-out smoked barracuda (another gastronomic bucket list item down), and I already know I’m NEVER going to make it through even a quarter of the bowl.

(My condolences to the corresponding beef, chicken and myriad vegetables drowned out by the intrusive barracuda. Had I been able to taste you at all, I would have scribbled a few flowery descriptions about your respective contributions here.)

I resolve to get back on the (sea) horse during my next visit, and am rewarded with a fabulous whole fried croaker that’s easily deboned and swiftly dispatched after being wrapped in floppy rounds of cassava bread brimming with mouthwatering pepper sauce.

Curried goat is bony but worth the effort, the sultry meat simmered down with vegetables and spooned over welcoming grains of plain white rice. Pepper chicken is better, delivering a spice-infused bird—spice is pervasive but not punitive, the flesh resplendently juicy—we’d gladly flock to anytime.

“It’s a learning experience, starting an African restaurant,” Shaban-Brown says of the roller coaster-ride that is restaurateuring. “But we like to see people enjoying our food. And we’ve gotten very good feedback.”

To wit, Shaban-Brown shares tentative plans to branch out with a shisha/hookah lounge—though it remains unclear whether they’ll seek to expand via a sidewalk patio or make a play for any of the unclaimed surrounding storefronts (there are only seven vacant plots to chose from).

“Only a matter of time,” she says.

Salone’s
22330 S. Sterling Blvd., Sterling; 703-956-9145; (www.salonesafricancuisines.com)

Hours: Open for lunch and dinner.
Prices: under $12 ($).

 

(September 2011)